The Free

Resumen del libro

The life he knew before the bomb no longer existed. That Leroy Kervin was gone. Willy Vlautin's stunning fourth novel opens with Leroy, a young, wounded, Iraq veteran, waking to a rare moment of clarity, his senses flooded with the beauty of remembering who he is but the pain of realising it won't last. When his attempt to end his half-life fails, he is taken to the local hospital where he is looked after by a nurse called Pauline, and visited by Freddie, the night-watchman from his group home for disabled men. As the stories of these three wounded characters circle and cross each other, we come to learn more of their lives. The father who caused her mother to abandon them both, and who Pauline loves and loathes in equal measure, the daughters Freddie yearns to be re-united with and, in a mysterious and frightening adventure story, the girlfriend Leroy dreams of protecting. Evoking a world which is still trying to come to terms with the legacy of a forgotten war, populated by those who struggle to pay for basic health care, Vlautin also captures how it is the small acts of kindness which can make a difference between life and death, between imprisonment and liberty. Haunting and essential, The Free is an unforgettable read.

Biografía del autor

Jesús Carrasco nació en Badajoz en 1972 y en 2005 se trasladó a Sevilla, donde reside en la actualidad. Intemperie lo ha consagrado como uno de los debuts más deslumbrantes del panorama literario internacional, y ha sido galardonada con el Premio Libro del Año otorgado por el Gremio de Libreros de Madrid, el Premio de Cultura, Arte y Literatura de la Fundación de Estudios Rurales, el English PEN Award y el Prix Ulysse a la Mejor Primera Novela. Ha quedado finalista del Premio de Literatura Europea en Holanda, del Prix Méditerranée Étranger en Francia, y de los premios Dulce Chacón, Quimera, Cálamo y San Clemente en España. Elegida como Libro del Año por El País en 2013 y seleccionada por The Independent como uno de los mejores libros traducidos de 2014 en Reino Unido, Intemperie ha sido traducida a una veintena de lenguas y ha sido adaptada al cine por Benito Zambrano. Su segunda novela, La tierra que pisamos (Seix Barral, 2016), una novela poderosa, tan conmovedora como escalofriante (J. A. Masoliver Ródenas, Cultura/s), ha sido galardonada con el Premio de Literatura de la Unión Europea 2016.