Pilar Quintana's ABYSS reminds me very much of WHAT MAISIE KNEW by William James. A wise observant child sees much more than the adults around her assume she is capable of seeing, and by naively reporting her observations here in the novel, the child indicts the adults in her life, both for their shallowness and aimlessness, as well as for their casual cruelties.

James's novel is written in third person and I think his choice of perspective works better for me, for a story where a naive-wise child is the narrator and the witness to adult foibles. Williams's choice to make Maisie a character in what is essentially James's story allows us, as readers, to float somewhere at a distance, and to see his characters whole, including the child at its center--and to have pity for them. Whereas Quintana's first-person narrator, Claudia, feels a little too wise to me sometimes, and a little too self-absorbed, where the story becomes more about her than about what she observes.

So I'm ending up writing a very technical-crafty review of this novel. The mode of how this story was told was what interested me most about it. The happenings in and of themselves felt a little small, and mean, and I could find no greater theme to grab onto, where I could feel pity, or could care much at all for these feckless adults and their various peccadillos.

It's a very tricky thing to pull off a story where a child's perspective dominates, and where we readers are meant to see past the child's limited perspectives, and to see the whole of it. It didn't quite work for me here. I wanted some greater meaning and it didn't happen.

I w was immediately drawn in to this story a book that is painful and powerful. Told through the voice of a child who had wisdom to share.#netgalley #abyss

I have a new author to follow…Pilar Quintana from Colombia, South America. What a beautiful job she did with this book, using bold, terse phraseology to build her characters and convey the story’s suspense. This is the story of a young girl (Claudia) growing up with a hardworking (read absent) father and a mother who obsesses over celebrity magazines all day long and tends to her many plants. Everything is good in Claudia’s life until her mother meets, and falls for, the captivating young man who has just married Claudia’s older aunt (her father’s sister). To try to mend their relationship, Claudia’s father finds a place for the family to stay in the nearby mountains of Cali. The mountains are glorious, but there is a dark side…an abyss that would be easy for Claudia or her mother to fall into especially as fog frequently envelopes the mountains and houses. Fears of this literal abyss grow ever greater for Claudia as her mother continues to fight depression and as stories proliferate of neighbors and friends who have committed suicide (i.e. fallen into a figurative abyss). Scariest for me was how Claudia acted with regard to her cherished doll, Penelope, in light of the abyss. I can’t say anything more than that without giving away what, for me, was the best moment in the story.

I liked everything about this novella except that it ended too soon for my tastes. I would happily have read a hundred more pages about this young girl and her family. I have already looked for other books by Quintana and found one that was a National Book Award Finalist – The Bitch (referring to a female dog, not a you-know). I guess that’s where I’ll be going next.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The way how everything is portrayed through Claudia's eyes hold both a sense of naivety and how she sees traumatic events. This book definitely explores adult problems/issues from a child's perspective, which alot of people tend to underestimate. Once people become mature and grow older, we lose much of our memories of how we saw adult issues of the world from a child's perspective and so this affects the way how we, as adults, them see children. We see them as not being able to comprehend problems of older people, but it's not that they don't understand, they just have a different way of dping so. This book, however, allowed me to kindle memories of how I percieved traumatic events as a child, as it did for many others.

In terms of storyline, nothing dramatic happens per say, it does not have a dense storyline but it is a book that conveys sad and tragic feelings beautifully. The ending was quite abrupt but this still doesn't put me off from this book. It is definitely one I see myself reading again due to the way how the place (Cali, Columbia) is described and the way how the book itself is written.

Thank you to World Editions, the author and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC.

Abyss is a haunting and lyrical tale which follows Claudia, an eight year old girl, in Cali, Colombia. Claudia tries to understand the world of adults around her and whilst doing so is met with fears and horrors.

Faced with the fear of abandonment, our protagonists’ childish voice exemplifies the darkness within the novel. She understands and observes what is happening around her but struggles to express how she feels.

Quintana details depression within a society that is patriarchal and reluctant to speak on mental health. The novel was oppressive and anxiety inducing - the complex realities of life and adult relationships were vividly portrayed.

I will definitely be reading more of Quintana’s works!

Thank you to NetGalley and World Editions for the e-ARC! In Abyss, Pilar Quintana describes a family’s interactions through Claudia’s eyes. Quintana’s portrayal of Claudia is meticulous, detailing the blissful naivety of a child while also trying to process the traumatic events happening around her. The descriptions of her nightmares are so vivid and feverish. I am very interested to read The Bitch and other work by her after this!

“But inside, where the orphan was, in that sea of silence, I knew there lived a monster.” When adults don’t provide explanations for their behaviour because they’re embarrassed or ashamed or can’t think of an age-appropriate explanation, children fill in the gaps.

Abyss is told from the perspective of eight-year-old Claudia, who lives in a jungle-like apartment in Cali, Colombia with her mother, father and their respective secrets. Their marriage has problems. Claudia’s mother was a much younger bride who married from family pressure rather than love. Perhaps this is why she has a wandering eye, extramarital affairs and is prone to depression that she mischaracterises as rhinitis for her daughter. The inconsistencies and lack of parenting do not escape Claudia’s astute eye: “This was the first time since her rhinitis that my mother had done anything like that for me.”

“I wanted to face the abyss again, to feel the luscious feeling in my belly, and the fear, the desire Virgo to jump and to run away.” Her mother’s suicidal ideation and obsession with celebrities who took their own lives, and her family history of a missing woman, all encourage Claudia to idealise death and explore what suicide means. Luckily when Claudia throws her doll Paulina off the cliff, the other adults in her life, her father and aunt Amelia, take notice and demand better parenting despite the “bottomless pit that nothing could fill” inside her. While it felt short, started slowly and ended abruptly, Pilar Quintana has explored the child’s perspective on adult problems well enough to give pause to any parents lying to their kids about affairs and mental illness.

I feel that one thing Pilar Quintana is really good at is creating an intensive and atmospheric text. I thought that while reading her book “The bitch” and also in “The Abyss”. In this book the story is narrated by a girl called Claudia. I didn’t feel like the voice and the age of the girl added up. It became a gap in the text which I couldn’t ignore.

I usually like a story that deals with mental health issues which this book did. Claudia’s mother is depressed and spends most of her time in bed with magazines and the only one who understands that she is depressed is Claudia, the child..
Even though it is about a dysfunctional family and tragic events I didn’t feel much for any of the characters and I think it was due to the fact that the voice lacked credibility.

The ending of the book felt very abrupt and underwhelming.

I read this as a translated book in English by Lisa Dillman who I think did a really great job.
The book is from the perspective of a young girl in Colombia who grows up with a depressed mother and absent father.
At times it felt like the story was told more from an adult perspective than a kid, but when it did that it was beautiful. The book is heartbreaking and a testament that not all parents should be parents.
The world building and descriptions make it very lively and it is very easy to image yourself there. That is something I always look for in books that are set in places I have not visited.
If you are ready to feel really sad this is the book for you.

An eight years old Claudia looks around herself and describes the world she is surrounded by. At first glance, it seems perfect: nice house, young and pretty mom, father working hard and honestly to provide for his family. But it all is an illusion. In fact, this house is cold, love has gone stale and the mother suffers from depression, a condition in some parts of the world still unspoken. Claudia tried very hard to earn attention and, most importantly, love from her parents, but to no avail. This fight has been already lost.
This book is sad, tragic, and beautiful. And yet, somehow there is something missing, this part that could make this tale more personal and moving. Saying that one must admit the authors' real talent and a good chance for a promising future.

I love a book that is all vibes, a little bit of plot. There isn't much of a traditional "beginning, middle, end" but the story does develop in a lovely, subtle way. We are reading about a child whose mother is struggling with serious mental health issues. Her parents have a dysfunctional, age-gap relationship that feels predatory but is far more nuanced than you first believe. Claudia is constantly enshrouded in her mother's obsession with disappearing or suicidal women - women who felt trapped in their lives or suffered from the traditional roles they found themselves in as wives and mothers. She herself becomes fearful of the 'abyss', this inescapable depression that seems to inevitably overtake every other woman in her life. I enjoyed the perspective of young Claudia, of her complicated relationship with her parents and her growing awareness of the adult world. Quintana has successfully navigated and portrayed the complex love of parents who struggle with mental illness, who want to be there to love their children, but often fail. She shows how fallible parents are and how Claudia becomes aware that her parents are whole people with a past and a future that don't revolve around her. However, like I said at the start, there isn't much story here. If a reader enjoys a really dense plotline, this novel is probably not for them.

A captivating, sorrowful journey through the eyes of female family relationships. Beautifully descriptive it takes you into Cali, into their homes. Reflective on the impact of a mother's depression on her daughter. A stunning read.

Awesome… What are you waiting for?! Snap this one up ASAP! Could not put it down. Housework was not done, kids were not fed… Fantastic writing, kept me gripped all the way through!

Narrated by eight year old Claudia and set in Cali, Colombia, there were parts of this novel that really drew me in particularly the darker sections that dealt with how women cope with depression or unfulfilled lives. Young Claudia doesn’t fully understand the adult world but has fears for her parents, her mother appears to suffer bouts of depression and is obsessed with the deaths of famous women from Princess Grace to Natalie Wood, and also the disappearance of an old friends mother and the recent death of a cousin, all things that weigh on the mind of a child. The ending seemed quite abrupt to me and overall it left me wanting more.

I went into the Abyss completely blind, and it overwhelmed me but I did not want to pull back.
Abyss is the story of Claudia, and her mother - also Claudia. Even though Claudia (the daughter) is only 8, she can sense something is not right with her mom. Her family life is slowly unraveling and Claudia Jr is trying her best to fix things. She tries to help her mom to get out of bed, she tries to engage with her dad, learns about her extended family in the hopes of understanding her parents better.
This book was strange because I was able to empathize completely with both Claudias. I have experienced the hopelessness of trying to get your parents' affection, dealing with a sick mother, not feeling pretty, not feeling enough that Claudia Jr feels. But I am also the exact same age as Claudia Sr, and I can understand her feeling of being trapped, life regrets, family trauma being passed on to her. This book is just hauntingly beautiful but touches on some very heavy topics. I am so glad I got to read it and I believe everyone should experience the Abyss.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review..

This is a really good book. Not as good as "The Bitch" (which I firmly believe to be a PERFECT novel, word for word) but a good follow up. "What Maisie Knew" is an obvious comparision. I liked the first person perspective and the childhood point of view. Loved all the sections in Cali, obviously, especially the trip to the zoo. I liked the theme of frustrated, depressed, unfulfilled women - the abyss that lurks deep within us all. I want to write more but it's so hot my brain is barely working. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

It's a little bit of a slow burn but once you get into it, you're fully engaged. OMG I can't wait for more readers to experience this.

This is like a Columbian version of 'What Maisie Knew' or 'The Death of the Heart', albeit Bowen's narrator is an adolescent, not a child as in Henry James and Abyss. In this book we have a child's-eye view of the complicated lives of adults encompassing sex, adultery, depression told to us via a narrator who understands the emotional significance of what is happening but doesn't comprehend either adult behaviour or the full implications of what she is witnessing.

There are some powerful pieces that illuminate how children are deeply affected by their familial surroundings but overall I didn't find this as impactful as I'd hoped. The Columbian setting is fascinating and gives the book a shot of energy. However, I seem to have read a lot of books recently turning on the claustrophobia of standard gender roles, especially the plight of intelligent women who are not allowed to work outside the home, and the resultant repression and frustrations of patriarchal control that take a toll on mental health - always an important topic, just overdone in my recent reading choices - mea culpa! Anyone coming to this topic afresh may well respond more positively to Quintana's work.

I loved reading this. Pilar Quintana is a brilliant writer, and her translator, Lisa Dillman, did such an excellent job. Abyss reminded me of my own childhood and my own family, bringing up memories I hadn't thought of for a long, long time. The mature voice of the protagonist, Claudia, who's just a little girl, spoke to the complexity of thoughts and emotions that children really do have. There were many painful moments in Abyss that made me surprisingly emotional. I haven't teared up while reading a book in...I don't know how long. But the experience was not at all unpleasant. This was a beautiful read.

I liked the timelessness of this novel.
I liked the way things were implied not stated.
I liked the way that it was complex but simple.
I liked the way that it was written through the eyes of a child and yet told about adult life.
I liked the way that I never quite got what the author was saying but I understood everything.

I thought that style was bang up-to-date and yet is reminiscent of Jorge Amado, Gabriel García Márquez and even José Saramago.

The descriptions were amazing, the depiction of the jungle, both inside the house and outside takes the reader there.
The overriding theme of the book is in the title the Abyss. It is beautiful, it is frightening, it draws the reader in, it makes the reader shy away from it.
I was there where the action was, even when there was no action only words.

Fantastic book. Well done Pilar Quintana,. Well done Lisa Dillman for the translation.
I'm looking forward to more of the same.
My thanks to the publisher for an advanced copy for honest review.