Description
Mice in the Pantry
Book Summary
On the borders between Asturias and León, a mythical territory of forests, valleys, and swamps serves as the setting for a collection of rural stories where the unusual and the surreal intertwine with tradition. The characters in Mice in the Pantry share a common helplessness: women who throw their hearts to the pigs, miners who control towns with scale models, farm women in love with scarecrows, and villages guarded by hanged men. Raquel Presumido builds a fantastic universe that reflects collective anxieties through a popular and folkloric lens, offering the reader a unique literary experience that connects with the best of the Spanish fantastic tradition.
What is it about?
The book gathers a series of stories set in a specific geographic and symbolic space: a high mountain pass that acts as a border between Asturias and León. In this landscape of forests, valleys, villages, and swamps, the protagonists experience extraordinary situations that defy everyday reality. A woman expels her heart from her mouth and throws it to the pigs; a miner with silicosis controls the town using a scale model; a farm woman develops a romantic relationship with her scarecrow; a hanged man watches over the community from a pine forest; and a witch inhabits a village where hatred is the dominant emotion. All these characters share a condition of vulnerability, that same sense of powerlessness one feels when something or someone gets into your pantry and turns out to be faster and more elusive than you. The work is inserted into the best of the fantastic tradition, serving as a mirror to reflect collective anxieties from a popular and folkloric approach.
Main Themes
- Human helplessness in the face of the unknown and uncontrollable
- Magical realism and the fantastic in the rural environment
- Oral tradition and folkloric elements as a narrative vehicle
- The relationships between the human and the non-human in isolated spaces
- The border territory as a space of conflict and transformation
Who is it recommended for?
This book is aimed at readers interested in contemporary fantastic narrative with roots in the Spanish tradition, especially those who enjoy short stories with evocative atmospheres and marginal characters. It will also be attractive to those looking for literature that combines the unusual with the everyday, the rural with the surreal, and that explores the tensions between the community and the individual. Followers of authors like Julio Cortázar, Cristina Fernández Cubas, or the tradition of Hispanic-American fantastic short stories will find a kindred narrative universe here.
What this book offers
- A collection of stories that renews the Spanish fantastic tradition from a contemporary and popular perspective
- Memorable characters and extreme situations that explore human vulnerability with dark humor and sensitivity
- A detailed rural setting that turns the Asturian-Leonese landscape into another character in the narrative
- A reflection on fear, loneliness, and resistance in isolated communities
Technical Details
- Author: PRESUMIDO, RAQUEL
- Publisher: EDITORIAL PEZ DE PLATA, S.L
- Language: Spanish
- Topic: Modern and contemporary fiction
- Collection: Narrativa Pez de Plata
- Publication Date: April 2025
- Number of pages: 128
- Weight: 220 g
Editorial Review
Mice in the Pantry presents itself as a solid literary proposal within the contemporary fantastic genre, with a narrative voice that draws from oral tradition and folklore to build its own universe. The work stands out for its ability to generate oppressive and evocative atmospheres in a very specific geographic space, and for offering an original perspective on human helplessness. Its length of 128 pages makes it an agile yet intense read, ideal for those seeking to immerse themselves in short stories with significant symbolic and emotional weight. Its publication in April 2025 positions it as a new release that deserves the attention of lovers of fantastic narrative with Hispanic roots.