Danish writer Thomas Rydahl, a burgeoning new voice in Nordic black literature (has yet to reach the Jo nesbo, Camilla Lackberg and many others ...) with half a dozen novels behind him, a couple of years ago he raised an exotic scenario, for the readers of his country, with which to break national clichés of stories in low light, in icy settings of his Scandinavian land.
And then he took his fourth novel to Fuerteventura. It was The Hermit. A story that, although it was very successful in Denmark, arrived in Spain with that novel-winning vitola located in the homeland and the truth is that it deflated a bit.
In my opinion, I think the problem was more about the translation itself, about the lack of adequacy of winks and resources from one language to another.
Because the truth is that the story looked good at first, only that it gradually peeled off as a result of that screeching more attributable to the literalness of the translation and the lack of resources with which to redirect ironies and rhetorical figures typical of the Danish country.
And yet, in this second installment it seems as if the translator has been changed. Because the narration progresses at a different pace, more naturally, with an Erhard, the absolute protagonist, who gets the hang of it better. (That the guy is a taxi driver, plays the piano and ends up taking care of a herd of goats can be assumed as a surprising characterization or a real grotesque, depending on whether the author's most authentic intention is transmitted, or not)
In this novel we know aspects of Erhard, the hermit, that in the first installment we could not even imagine. And it is that the destiny of the singular hero who prefers anonymity can be changed forever in the light of the events that ensue while he is embarked on a new mission with special focus on the immigration of African people who are looking for a passport on the island. straight to the longed-for Europe.
You can now buy the novel The missing, the new book by Thomas Rydahl, here: