Meet the author: Samanta Schweblin
Samanta Schweblin’s stories are grim, witty, disturbing, thrilling and extremely insightful. In her new collection, El buen mal (forthcoming in English as Good and Evil and Other Stories), her stories have become longer and her characters even more human and eerily recognizable in all their vulnerability. Moderator Jana Antonissen shares a Berlin connection with Schweblin and proved her literary daring with her debut novel, Ludwig.
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good and evil
El buen mal centres on the fragility of life and the uncontrollability of those things we care about most. The book includes six oppressive and enchanting stories that make our deepest fears palpable. We meet a sad father who can no longer communicate with his son after an unfortunate accident, a mother waiting for her daughter to return, and a woman who is tired of life but feels compelled to continue living out of love.
tension on the edge of the everyday
With this collection, Samanta Schweblin explores further the themes that permeate her oeuvre as a whole: psychological tension, moral ambiguity and a world in which the bizarre and the familiar flow into each other. The Argentinian author is a master at building tension, which she combines with her own style to not only move her readers, but also unsettle them.
Frightening, with a strong undertone of fear. You never know what’s lurking around the next corner.’
about the author
Samanta Schweblin (b. 1978) is one of the most influential Latin American authors of her generation. Her work has been translated into more than forty languages and has won many awards, including the Premio Tigre Juan and a nomination for the International Booker Prize. She lives and works in Berlin.
about the moderator
Jana Antonissen (b. 1992) is a Belgian journalist, columnist and writer of essays and short stories. Her column appears several times a week in De Morgen, and her debut novel, Ludwig, was recently published by De Bezige Bij. She lives in Brussels and Berlin.
