A review by adrianasturalvarez
Open Door by Iosi Havilio

5.0

In the afterword of my edition, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera writes: "The story remains in the surface, like smoothe snow to the skier, who glides expertly over it oblivious to the fact he is heading towards a precipice. You have in your hands a masterpiece." It's hard to disagree.

I found this novel truly stunning both bc of its impressive structural metaphors as well as its restrained prose. What begins as a damaged dreamscape of seemingly disconnected events experienced by the protagonist, gradually builds into a network of thematically congruent narrative elements that are never gimmicky and always surprisingly grounded in reality, however surreal that reality may appear.

Havilio has actually written an enormous but unassuming work here and I look forward to reading more from him as it is translated into English.