by Eva Baltasar
First published 2016
The narrator feels stones pulling them toward the river bottom. Algae move silently around them as water fills every space. They question whether breathing can stop completely. Decomposed leaves press against their face like soft mask molds or protective domes. They wonder if this rushing river can be halted in its urgency. Their body becomes waterproof while foundations rest in some pit they dug as children. They have become the path itself. Every wheel and all manner of waste has passed over them. The central tension revolves around this descent into water and the transformation of the human form. The narrator grapples with submersion, both physical and metaphorical, as their identity dissolves into the landscape they once shaped. This becomes a meditation on how bodies change when they surrender to natural forces beyond their control.
Genres: nature, animals, literary-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: dissolution-of-self, man-vs-nature
64 pages · Paperback · Edicions 62