Prosopagnosia

‘Fascinating.’

-- Siobhan Murphy * The Times *

‘With [Prosopagnosia], Sònia Hernández cements her place as one of the most individual voices of her generation.’

* La Vanguardia *

‘In this warm, lively, and intellectual novel, Hernández’s greatest achievement is allowing the protagonist to release her trauma in a way that is both simple and true.’

-- Santos Sanz Villanueva * El Cultural *

‘One of the best writers of her generation.’

-- Inés Martín Rodrigo * ABC *

‘A novel of our times that explores the difficulty of constructing oneself as a person and the chaos of how things seem to happen to us.’

-- Lluís Satorras * Babelia *

‘A tale of the conflict between reality and deception, and how the many forms of exile and solitude come together. A beautiful, enigmatic novel.’

-- Enrique Vila-Matas * El País *

‘A reflection on false appearances, assumed identities, the need to invent other lives for ourselves, and the need for art itself.’

-- Ángel Ortín Pascual * Heraldo de Aragón *

‘As structured and well-articulated as the paintings that inspired it.’

-- Isabel Gómez Melenchón * La Vanguardia *

‘[D]elivers a serious reflection on the purpose and meaning of literary fiction.’

-- Domingo Ródenas * El Periódico *

‘For Hernández, plot is just an excuse to articulate her own original ideas about beauty, identity, and exile, and this makes each of her books a declaration of ethical and aesthetic principles. This novel is not a means but an end in itself: the materialisation of her most important themes from life and literature.’

-- Liliana Muñoz * Criticismo *

‘Sònia Hernández’ writing is unsettling and unconventional, marked by a complete independence from the dominant trends of contemporary novels in Spanish.’

-- Santos Sanz Villanueva * El Mundo *

‘Hernández offers many insights into the value of experience, of travel as personal discovery, and the difficulty of explaining ourselves in our own words. A novel of reflection.’

-- Suárez Lafuente * La Nueva España *

‘A narratively ambitious reflection on art, beauty, motherhood, and identity … A conceptually fascinating book.’

* Kirkus Reviews *

‘Bewitching and intelligent.’

* Happy Magazine *

‘This quirky coming-of-age novel by a celebrated young Spanish writer centres on a tender mother-daughter relationship.’

* New York Times ‘New & Noteworthy’ *

‘[B]eguiling … the various characters’ deceptions are unveiled skillfully by Hernández as she distorts the reader’s sense of reality. This novel is more than it seems.’

* Publishers Weekly *

‘Hernández leads us on a reflection about truth and reality, about perception and beauty. The book is best read slowly, with time to absorb and contemplate our own reality and how we might be deceiving ourselves.’

* Asymptote ‘New in Translation’ *

‘[A]n intellectual and unflinching novel that is not afraid to ask the big questions. What is art? What is beauty? What is truth? Does any of it matter? … Hernández’s economy of language is masterful as she delves into questions that define a culture. Prosopagnosia is an uncanny portrait of what it means to be a human in the world today grappling with beauty, and confronting the way the internet has changed our relationship to art.’

* Write or Die Tri