WHAT REMAINS by Brais Lamela (tr. Jacob Rogers)
Text from Dorothy’s website: Shifting between the present and the archival past, New York City and the remote mountains of Negueira de Muñiz, What Remains follows a young scholar’s journey into a forgotten episode of the Franco regime, uncovering both the tragic history and the still-present afterlife of a forced resettlement project in the Galician countryside of the 1950s.
Like the hybrid works of Valeria Luiselli, Nathalie Léger, and Cristina Rivera Garza, Galician writer Brais Lamela’s prize-winning debut novel blends fiction, memoir, essay, and archival research to set history in conversation with contemporary reality. The result is a work of striking intimacy that explores, with subtle prose and arresting imagery, the complexity of modern migration and the legacy of twentieth-century colonization.
Reviews of WHAT REMAINS:
“A masterful first book. A novel at a crossroads of times, places, and genres, one that invites profound thought and intense feeling.” —Manuel Rivas
“Jacob Rogers’s subtle translation is an ideal match for the sensibility of Lamela’s writing in this stunning book.” —Idra Novey
“This important novel announces a major new voice in Galician literature.” —Daniel Saldaña París
“What remains? the book’s title asks. After emigration, after history, after death, exile, and transformation, what remains is life.” —Michael Barron, LARB
“Immensely impressed & moved by this beautiful debut.” —Garth Greenwell
“Like the hybrid works of Valeria Luiselli, Nathalie Léger, and Cristina Rivera Garza, Galician writer Brais Lamela’s prize-winning debut novel blends fiction, memoir, essay, and archival research to set history in conversation with contemporary reality.”
