The Alfaguara Novel Prize has celebrated its 20th edition, and is renowned as a model for literary prizes awarded to a previously unpublished work written in Spanish.The jury has recognized “a Kafkaesque, Orwellian storyabout authority and collective manipulation, a parable of our societies that are exposed to the sight and judgment of all.
Without falling into idealism, and through a humble, thoughtful voice with unexpected bursts of humor, the author constructs a luminous fable about exile, loss, parenthood, and affection. The plot of Rendición (Surrender) surprises us on every page until leading us to a stunning ending that resonates in the reader well after having put the book down.”
It has been ten long years since war broke out, and the couple still doesn’t know the whereabouts of their children, or if their country was the aggressor or the victim. Whatever the origin of the dispute, he, a farm laborer, and she, his former employer, continue to love each other and their days pass simply and routinely. One day, a mute boy enters their property. At first they lock him up like a prisoner, but they end up becoming fond of him, and when the authorities announce that the area needs to be evacuated and they must set out for the transparent city, the three go together. In that moment, the boy is baptized as Julio.
The gates of the metropolis display a clear warning: in the air swing the lifeless bodies of traitors. Inside, the transparent city is almost a paradise that provides its inhabitants with everything one could want in a home: harmony, neatness, and protection. Strict order, authoritarian calm, and absolute transparency reign supreme: neither secrets nor walls are permitted. In a society in which everything private is public domain, in a happy and suffocating world that passively attacks the dignity of human beings, emerge the most chilling portents of our future.
