The Voices of Adriana

Winner of the 2023 Cálamo Special Prize

“Death, online dating, ghosts and voices … this metafiction is innovative, surreal and dark, with a lot to say about grief, care, memory and love.”—Ms. Magazine

“A relentless novel about the loss of lightness, about what to do with—or how to measure—the weight that remains. Brutally honest yet mysteriously elusive, with scalpel-like precision and poetic sharpness, Elvira Navarro explores the dialectic of care, its vulnerabilities and its legacies.”
—Andrés Neuman, author of Traveler of the Century

“The Voices of Adriana is an extraordinary novel, in which a woman speaks to us from her ancestral tempest…Loneliness and family, the search for love, and a resurfacing past all intertwine in this extraordinary story that oscillates between social criticism and an exploration of the primitive forces of existence. Elvira Navarro is one of the greatest Spanish writers of today. A precise and meticulous surgeon of the heart’s most hidden emotions.”
—Manuel Vilas, author of Ordesa

“In Elvira Navarro’s stunning, bewildering novel, our loved ones are simultaneously gone without a trace and present in every moment. ‘Just how far do the dead travel with us?’ Adriana asks. The Voices of Adriana is an audacious metatextual attempt at finding out.”

—Los Angeles Review of Books

“Navarro’s novel can be seen as reclaiming a woman’s right to interrogate her own mind. It also speaks to how we create narratives for ourselves in order to survive what life throws our way. That Adriana continues to acknowledge the uncertainty of these stories, even as she finally finds the strength to tell them, is a powerful admission of our need to grow and adapt. We can’t always know how we should face what lies ahead, but we need to heed the advice of any voices that are willing to help.”

—Southwest Review

“A book that hides its eeriness in poetry, coming around corners with sharpened edges and precise screams.”
—Bex Frankeberger, Books Are Magic (Brooklyn, NY)

“Darkly humorous and sad, the first part of The Voices of Adriana follows it’s eponymous character through the surreal and uncomfortable process of becoming a caretaker to her aging widower father while he attempts to find love on the internet. The second part finds Adriana attempting to process the grief brought on by the loss of her mother and maternal grandmother and the differences between their three lives. She writes a conversation in their voices, which at times turns meta with the “characters” (her mother and grandmother) telling Adriana that she’s getting their voices wrong. I loved this part, it is so unique and such a reminder to talk to those we love while we have the chance.”
—Laurel Kane, White Whale Bookstore (Pittsburgh, PA)

“The author’s high-mileage ease in creating voices for everyday strangers versus the congested struggle of putting the voices of loved ones down on paper (especially when those beloved voices are incessantly, omnipresently critical, yet all-in-all just YOU putting YOUR words in THEIR mouths in YOUR your head): broken up here in three parts, we ride with the author, taking three go’s at it, A-Plussing all the way, some light tunes on the grief coupe’s AM/FM radio, as each bumpy road leads to semi-recovery and/or self-discovery.”
—Ian McCord, Avid Bookshop (Athens, GA)

Praise for Elvira Navarro

“This author’s literary talent is a natural gift…the subtle, almost hidden, true avant-gardist of her generation.”
—Enrique Vila-Matas, author of Mac’s Problem

“Navarro, a Spanish writer, deploys surrealism to comic, haunting effect.”
—The New York Times

“[Navarro] is a master anatomist of class and, particularly, money—both its power and the maddening indignity of its lack.”
—Los Angeles Times

Additional Materials

• “Interview with Elvira Navarro,” in Full Stop Magazine
• “Images of Women,” excerpt from The Voices of Adriana, in Granta
• The Voices of Adriana Reader’s Guide
• Request an Exam or Desk Copy