El Mundo / The World

«Qu habr a ocurrido si aquel d a lejano de mi infancia no hubiera regresado al s tano por el mismo agujero por el que hab a salido de l. Tal vez la vida hubiera mantenido siempre aquel brillo o aquella fiebre .

«Hay libros que, al modo del autom vil que se salta un sem foro, se cruzan violentamente en tu existencia. Este es de los que se saltan el sem foro --explica Mill s--. Me hab an encargado un reportaje sobre m mismo, de forma que comenc a seguirme. Un d a me dije: "Mi padre ten a un taller de aparatos de electromedicina". Entonces se me apareci el taller, conmigo y con mi padre dentro. l estaba probando un bistur el ctrico sobre un filete. De s bito, me dijo: "F jate, Juanjo, cauteriza la herida en el momento mismo de producirla". Comprend que la escritura, como el bistur , cicatrizaba las heridas en el instante de abrirlas e intu por qu era escritor. Acababa de ser arrollado por una novela .

Ganadora del Premio Nacional de Narrativa y del Premio Planeta, alabada por la cr tica y los lectores, El mundo narra con maestr a el tr nsito a la vida adulta de un adolescente, pero tambi n el descubrimiento de una manera original e imaginativa de observar y entender la realidad.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

"What would have happened if on that distant childhood day I hadn't gone back to the basement through the same hole I had crawled out from? Maybe life would have forever kept that same glow, or that fever."

"There are books that, same as a car running a red light, violently cross your path. This is one of those books that run a red light," explains Mill s. "I had been assigned to write a story about myself, so I began following me. One day I said to myself, 'My father had a store of electro-medical equipment.' And then the shop appeared before me, with me and my father inside. He was testing an electric scalpel on a steak. Suddenly, he said, 'Look, Juanjo, it cauterizes the wound as it opens it.' I understood that writing, just like that scalpel, cauterizes wounds while it opens them, and I knew why I was a writer. I had just been run over by a novel."

Winner of both the National Narrative Award and the Premio Planeta, praised by critics and readers alike, The World masterfully describes the transition of a teenage boy to adult life, but also the discovery of an original and imaginative way to observe and understand reality.