A Luminous Republic, Andres Barba
A Luminous Republic, Andres Barba
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

A Luminous Republic

Author: Andrés Barba

Narrator: Jonathan Davis

Unabridged: 4 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperVia

Published: 04/14/2020


Synopsis

"Wholly compelling.” —Colm Tóibín

A new novel from a Spanish literary star about the arrival of feral children to a tropical city in Argentina, and the quest to stop them from pulling the place into chaos.

San Cristóbal was an unremarkable city—small, newly prosperous, contained by rain forest and river. But then the children arrived.
 
No one knew where they came from: thirty-two kids, seemingly born of the jungle, speaking an unknown language. At first they scavenged, stealing food and money and absconding to the trees. But their transgressions escalated to violence, and then the city’s own children began defecting to join them. Facing complete collapse, municipal forces embark on a hunt to find the kids before the city falls into irreparable chaos.
 
Narrated by the social worker who led the hunt, A Luminous Republic is a suspenseful, anguished fable that “could be read as Lord of the Flies seen from the other side, but that would rob Barba of the profound originality of his world” (Juan Gabriel Vásquez).
  Narrator Jonathan Davis is a critically acclaimed and award-winning narrator and voiceover actor who has earned accolades for his narration from The New York Times, Publisher's Weekly,  AudioFile Magazine, and USA Today.  In 2017, he was inducted into Audible’s Narrator Hall Of Fame. 
Jonathan's work as a narrator includes film and programming for National Geographic Television, NOVA, and PBS. He has narrated a variety of bestselling and award-winning titles in all genres for major publishing houses and national audio divisions. He is a four-time recipient and sixteen-time nominee of the celebrated Audie Award, presented by the APA for excellence in audiobook narration/production

About Andrés Barba

Andrés Barba is the award-winning author of numerous books, including Such Small Hands and The Right Intention. He was one of Granta’s Best Young Spanish novelists and received the Premio Herralde for his most recent novel, Luminous Republic, which was translated into over twenty languages. He lives in Argentina.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jim

This is a strikingly good book by a young Spanish author. I’ll stick to the blurb so that I don’t reveal any more of the plot. The blurb tells us what it’s about: “No one knew where they came from: thirty-two feral kids, seemingly born of the jungle, speaking an unknown language. At first they scaven......more

Goodreads review by Meike

What a book: The title-giving "luminous republic" is set up by 32 mysterious children who suddenly show up in the subtropical South American town of San Cristóbal. They speak an unknown language and seem to function like one big organism, a penchant for play and violence as well as a rebellious stre......more

I bambini siamo noi Impiegato presso l’Ufficio degli Affari Sociali, il narratore di cui non sapremo mai il nome ma conosceremo i pensieri, le paure e le esitazioni, racconta di quei giorni di vent’anni prima, quando trentadue bambini fra i nove e i dodici anni, che parlavano tra loro una lingua scon......more