Second Youth, by Juan Venegas

Time travel freaks me out as an argument. Because it is a full science fiction starting point that often turns into something else. The impossible longing to transcend time, the nostalgia of what we were and the remorse for wrong decisions.

This "Second Youth" by Juan Venegas has a lot of all those components. The thing is that before an argument like this, one of that Tom Hanks movie is remembered: "Big", and the question is whether this new plot around second chances in life will go down those paths or invite us to take new approaches.

The imagination of Juan Venegas manages to address different aspects with the magical cadence of its framework. On the one hand, the idea of ​​what has been lived with that notion of the oneiric, of the remote possibility that everything has been a dream precipitated towards a future that perhaps never was.

Balancing a point of humor due to the new situation of the protagonist with the contradictory sensations of the adult trapped in his repeated childhood, we launch into a fast-paced plot where the vain attempt to return to his real time weighs as much as the magnetic notion of the privilege of repeating the life. The added issue is that the matter may not be so easy...

"Who would be your age with what I know now!" the old dilemma made phrase by the old men of the place to any young person who passes before their eyes. On this occasion, fiction allows us to fulfill that idea to relive, thanks to Juan Venegas, the days of wine and roses, the inexhaustible time of children's summers and the horizon of a future marked with chalk.

Luciano was 29 years old yesterday; him today he woke up at 9. he is back at his parents' house and realizes that he has dreamed the last 20 years of his life. What's worse, since those years were a dream, everything he learned in that time is a lie. His loves are gone. His profession does not exist. His old best friend is now a brat who beats him up in the schoolyard.

The social rules of this world have also changed, to the point that adults threaten
with taking children to the asylum. But there are also new friends to discover, music that alters the perceptions and sensations that Luciano thought he had forgotten. To enjoy himself, all he has to do is forget 20 years of his life. That's all. Getting older won't be easier the second time around.

You can now buy the novel “Second Youth”, by Juan Venegas, here:

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