“Don’t you think that, after our deaths, after everything, it is they who are the stronger ones? And that, all things considered, perhaps this world does not belong to us, but to those miniscule beings, so numerous that they could bury us completely if they ever came together.”
Genre: Fiction
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: Discusses death. Also, insects and dead animals are prominent topics, if you have a phobia related to any insect, don’t read this book.
“This World Does Not Belong to Us” follows Lucas as he visits his childhood home after he was sent off and sold into slavery. Since then, his father has died and his mother has been labeled a madwoman—oh, and two strangers they had invited into their home years back are now permanently living it.
This book is deeply troubled and yet somehow beautifully poetic. It feels like it’s Lucas’s way of grieving not only his father’s death but all he lost when he was sent away. Between a series of flashbacks, Lucas relives the days he spent in the home that is no longer his.
I would recommend this book to people who like magical realism. So, people who have enjoyed books by authors like Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, and Isabel Allende. These books are filled with absurd circumstances that are portrayed as if they’re not absurd at all. I can see why this debut novel is so highly acclaimed in its original language, congratulations to Natalia García Freire and thanks to Victor Meadowcroft for this beautiful translation.
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ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
andrea's galley 