EL MAPA DE LOS AFECTOS

The map of human emotions follows the trail of the people who make up the hidden stories of places - places that evoke absences and strange events, where inexplicable crimes take places, where private and family tensions abide and the drive for goodness is the only thing that permits people to go on living.

Valeria, a young schoolteacher in a secret relationship with Tom, who is thirty years her senior, is confronted with a sentimental dilemma and wants to understand the meaning of love. In the tiny town where she lives, Lilian disappears without a trace while her husband is on the other side of the world. Obsessed with women, Greg, frequents a brothel on the outskirts of town to get away from his problems, until he gets found out in the worst way possible. Through moments like these that make up the life of a small rural community, we are plunged into the day-to-day mysteries of its inhabitants. Not only will their lives cross over the course of fifteen years, but they will be influenced by the magnetic force of affections, the randomness of chance, the poetic justice that at times gives rise to the most unexpected occurrences. Ana Merino (Madrid 1971) is a Professor of Cultural Studies and Creative Writing in Spanish at the University of Iowa, she started the MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish program in 2011. In the United States, she has been a pioneer in Hispanic Studies and in developing academic approaches to the comic and is a member of the Executive Committee for the International Comic Art Forum (IACF) and the Board of Directors for the Center of Cartoon Studies (CCS). She has published nine volumes of poetry, including Preparations for a Journey, winner of the Adonáis Poetry Prize 1994, several works of theater and a number of books for younger readers. Her debut novel, El mapa de los afectos (Destino, 2020 - Nadal Novel Award) was extremely well received by readers and critics alike.