How does one describe a book like Above the Rain? A literary novel that dances closely to a crime story? A crime novel as good as any literary novel? A story that starts slowly and then takes such hold of you that you can’t let it go? A story about aging and the past and memory, with an undercurrent of violence and darkness?
This novel by Víctor del Árbol, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman.
The characters live in different places in Europe – Tangiers; Seville, Madrid, and Barcelona in Spain; and Malmo in Sweden. A brief glance tells you they have no connections to each other. But as you read, you discover that, while several different stories are being told, they are related. And they are converging. The connections become gradually apparent over the course of this almost-600-page novel.
Miguel and Helena are 70-somethings who first meet in a retirement home. Miguel has reluctantly agreed to living there after he’s diagnosed with early very dementia, with a prognosis of two to three years before it changes into full-blown Alzheimer’s Disease. Helena is a widow, her husband having died some years before. They both have back stories. Each is a parent of a single child. Miguel’s daughter is married to a man he can’t stand, a serial abuse whose uncontrollable rages leads to beating his wife. Helena is haunted by her relationships with her dead husband, her son, and her best friend. But only slowly do we learn all of the details for both characters.
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| Victor del Arbol |
The Swedish story concerns a crime boss, simply known as Sture, his wife and stepson, and the family of one of the prostitutes working for him named Yasmina. She has one basic job: stay aware of what a deputy police chief is up to regarding Sture. Unfortunately, she’s also fallen in love with the policeman. And her family, immigrants from North Africa, go back decades with Sture. Her grandfather owes Sture a debt, and part of paying it off has been Yasmina’s prostitution.
As the ties and connections start to be made, the reader sees not many stories but ultimately only one, a story about the past never really staying the past and how parents can haunt their children. It’s a hard story at times; some of the violence is graphic. But it is also a compelling story, a story that slowly gets its fingers around your throat and then doesn’t let go.
Del Árbol has also published the novels Breaking Through the Wound, A Million Drops, The Sadness of the Samurai, and The Heart Tastes Bitter. From 1992 to 2012, he was an officer with the Catalan police force. He’s won several European prizes for his work: the Nadal prize, the Tiflos Prize, and the Prix du Polar Europeen. A Million Drops was named a Notable Book of the Year in 2018 by the Washington Post.
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