The acclaimed novel of Spain's economic crisis - a timely masterpiece.
Under a weak winter sun in small-town Spain, a man discovers a rotting corpse in a marsh. It's a despairing town filled with half-finished housing developments and unemployment, a place defeated by the burst of the economic bubble.
Stuck in the same town is Esteban, his small factory bankrupt, his investments gone, the sole carer to his mute, invalid father. As Esteban's disappointment and fury lead him to form a dramatic plan to reverse financial ruin, other voices float up from the wreckage. Stories of loss twist together to form a kaleidoscopic image of Spain's crisis. And the corpse in the marsh is just one.
Chirbes's rhythmic, torrential style creates a Spanish masterpiece for our age.
On the Edge opens with the discovery of a rotting corpse in the marshes on the outskirts of Olba, Spain - a town wracked by despair after the burst of the economic bubble, and a microcosm of a world of defeat, debt and corruption.
Stuck in this town is Esteban - his small factory bankrupt, his investments stolen by a'friend', and his unloved father, a mute invalid, entirely his personal burden. Much of the novel unfolds in Esteban's raw and tormented monologues. But other voices resound from the wreckage and their words, sharp as knives, crowd their terse, hypnotic monologues of ruin, prostitution and loss.
Chirbes alternates this choir of voices with a majestic third-person narration, injecting a profound and moving lyricism and offering the hope that a new vitality can emerge from the putrid swamps. On the Edge, even as it excoriates, pulsates with robust life, and its rhythmic, torrential style marks the novel as an indelible masterpiece.
