Bonilla si conferma un ottimo scrittore. Libro crudo e avvincente

Disturbing story. Okay writing style. Is high-priced prostitution better than living in a garbage dump?

Me pareció una historia interesante que profundiza por partes la vida dura de personas "que no tienen opciones" para salir del infierno donde viven.
El personaje principal por ratos depresivo, intenta entender por qué terminó en el lugar donde está.
Personajes interesantes y un final un poco chocante a mi parecer.

¡Recomendada!

Trama bastante curiosa, pero en mi opinión luce un poco introducción gran parte del libro sin profundizar en la trama que tendría mucho potencial

My read of Prohibido entrar sin pantalones had been highly enjoyable and since I am in the lookout for contemporary Spanish writers – with not much success – I went on the search of more books by Bonilla. Disconcertingly, editions of Spanish books are limited; they go out of print quickly. This I ordered from a second-hand seller in the US - it belonged to Livermore Public Library. Then, when I received it, I was not sure I really was interested in the theme. From the cover it deals with current illegal immigration from Africa. A subject of paramount importance, socially, ethically, but that in literature could easily derive into either a sentimental and simplistic account or into an elucidation loaded with stereotypes.

Moisés Froissard Calderón, the narrator and protagonist, introduces himself as someone who used to “save lives”. This is his story. By saving lives he means catching illegal immigrants arriving from Africa to the Spanish coasts and enrolling them into a sophisticated and international network of expensive and very beautiful prostitutes.

Anything could come out of that premise, but Bonilla has a knack for mixing the serious and the compassionate with a humorous and farcical tone that has speckles of a surreal magic realism, with a clever use of elements of ridicule, resulting in a very entertaining and funny read.

If to this you add literary meditations that are never pedantic but that separate the novel from a purely social-denunciation novel, then the work becomes distinct from a pamphlet. On these there is humour too. The narrator several times appeals to his wish he had an “omniscient narrator” who would clarify things to him – in the story, and then, of course, in his life, since the novel is his life. As a child, when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, his answer would be “omniscient narrator”. That there is a dog called “omniscient narrator” does not help – and it is done away with. Moisés also has recourse to Stephen King and to a couple of his literary recommendations for account-makers. King advices that any narration have three components: the story that must take the reader from A to Z; the description that has to create a sensorial reality; and finally the dialogue that will bring the characters to life. But then any story must be the account of a transformation.

And one could say that this transformation is the foundation of this story – not just that of “saving lives”, but also of the Narrator, Moisés. And this he does in the end when finding a way out to a couple of Africans, he finds his own path of what had become hell.

with human trafficking/immigration being hot-button issues these days, this gem of a book manages to be simultaneously meditative and satirical.

well didn't really expect this kind of plot!! when i got the book on a dollar sale, i was simply attracted to the cover of the 'Nubian Prince'..

I didn't hate it!! but i didn't love it either!! kind of disturbing at some points.. like referring to vulnerable people as 'pieces' as they will be turned into a 'machine' to train their bodies into nothing but simply sexually pleasing their clients!!

However, I loved the twisted ending though!!

Would i recommend it? I guess if you haven't got anything else to read..then go for it :)

how can one resist a book featuring a dog called omniscient narrator?

i loved it

This is an addictive little story about an international prostitution ring and their recruiters' hunt for a nubian prince. Yeah. It's not bad; I wish I could have read it in it's original Spanish print.

The sex industry, the problem of world poverty, and "illegal" immigration are the topics of this novel. He is not nearly as hard hitting or interesting as the writer of the Platform or as compassionate as Burdett's three novels on Bangkok.

This book is what happens when a writer cannot climb out of his own commitment to Europeaness. We get a novel about serious issues but lacking even a trace of pathos, compassion, or insight. What a waste.

Un tema muy interesante, pero quizá tratado con demasiada distancia