Ana Iris Simón wrote “Feria” to depict a way of life she fears is vanishing. She didn’t expect its message to be embraced by conservatives in her country.

“People have been reading my book as if it were the new ‘Mein Kampf,’” Ana Iris Simón said, “and they then are writing to me to say that they are disappointed to find that it has neither the strong political message that they had hoped for, nor the content that they had heard about.” Ben Roberts for The New York Times

CAMPO DE CRIPTANA, Spain — In her debut novel, “Feria,” Ana Iris Simón begins with a poignant admission: “I’m jealous of the life that my parents had at my age.”

“Feria” is based on her childhood in the arid heartland of Spain, with parents who were postal workers and grandparents who were farmers on one side, traveling fairground workers on the other. Little happens, but that is intentional — she wants readers to appreciate her rural upbringing in Castilla-La Mancha, the region made famous by the Cervantes classic “Don Quixote.”

Ms. Simón, 30, also means, through her portrayal of how her family lived, to express ambivalence about what her generation has gained — university educations, travel, consumer goods — as well as their feelings of anxiety, especially when it comes to jobs and the economy. Ms. Simón herself lost her job as a journalist working for Vice magazine as she was writing “Feria.”

By Raphael Minder

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