En AlbionAnna Hope (Manchester, 1974) hace quest for literary tradition novels set in grand English country houses. But his intention is thoroughly modern.
The inner demons of the inhabitants of the mansion and its 400 hectares of land have risen from the decadence that befell the English landowners.
We think of relevant novels on the subject, such as EM Forster’s Howards End (1910), Lady Chatterley’s loverby DH Lawrence (1928), d I return to Brideshead, de Evelyn Waugh (1945), comparative references are evident.
Albion
Anne Hope
Translated by Regina López Muñoz. Libros del Asteroide, 2026. 400 pages. €24.95
In the novel Naděje, we get a glimpse into social differences and between the upper classes on mathematics: seemingly conventional and bohemian; clean ecology and the New Age; those who are believed to be the two ancestral lands on earth, and those who regard their owners as usurpers who have gained their right through the oppression of others.
They also have sex naturally, between the hija’s lover and the attractive finca worker, secrets and conflicting returns on the part of the prodigal hijo.
Author Desperate, Ballroom y Expectation, Anna Hope achieved critical success with her entire body of work. Albion It lasts four days in a claustrophobic enclosure, although it seems like a paradox of the house and its natural environment.
The Brooke family if you go back to the patriarch’s backgroundPhilip, a living man who left his wife for North American gallery owner Natasha, only to return years later as a cancer patient.
Grandma is the mayor of Hija, heiress to all the property, single mother of teenage Rowan. Isabel, a teacher, lives with her natural husband and children, but is chained to Jack’s bed, the guardian of the place.
Finally, Milo is a son who escaped from alcohol, suicide and as many problems as his father, who is eager to dedicate so many hectares to a center for the rehabilitation of rich people in a big way. New Age, which the grandmother, the heiress, denies. Grace, Philip’s married wife, lives on the edge of everything.
His intimate and impossible love is Ned, a close family friend who has lived for 40 years in a qualified bus, installed in a corner of the country, dedicated to his healing roots and the memory of the psychotic party that began in Philip and his youth. the same in finca.
The novel is a grand story that only at some point turns into a collective drama that could have been written by Tennessee Williams.
To understand the interweaving of the characters in each other, Philip’s attitude will be supported by Ned, Hari, Isabel’s husband, Jack, the father of the inheritance, and Milo, the abandoned son who eventually helped his father with drugs.
The group is joined by her father’s mistress, Natasha’s daughter, who arrives from the United States to view a mysterious painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, believed to be the first Brooke to build the mansion.
Clara, PhD student of the English XVIII. century, will provoke you catharsis of characters throughout by Philip Brooke.
Using multiperspectivism, the author alternates the visions and personalities of the protagonists. Use a free indirect style with a lot of thought and skill to develop from third-person narration to the characters’ thoughts and visions.
Generous to the readerleave a little space when you jump from one part or go from one person to another. The ensemble is a magnificent combination that only at a certain point becomes a collective drama of which Tennessee Williams might have signed, but generally maintains a British aloofness of colossal psychological depth. It turns out to be a rich kaleidoscope of interesting characters.
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