#BlogTour The Bitch by Pilar Quintana

It's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Bitch by Pilar Quintana, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman.

This book has been selected to receive financial assistance from English PEN’s Writers in Translation programme supported by Bloomberg and Arts Council England. English PEN exists to promote literature and its understanding, uphold writers’ freedoms around the world, campaign against the persecution and imprisonment of writers for stating their views, and promote the friendly co-operation of writers and free exchange of ideas.

Each year, a dedicated committee of professionals selects books that are translated into English from a wide variety of foreign languages. We award grants to UK publishers to help translate, promote, market and champion these titles. Our aim is to celebrate books of outstanding literary quality, which have a clear link to the PEN charter and promote free speech and intercultural understanding.

In 2011, Writers in Translation’s outstanding work and contribution to diversity in the UK literary scene was recognised by Arts Council England. English PEN was awarded a threefold increase in funding to develop its support for world writing in translation. Visit www.englishpen.org

About the Author
Pilar Quintana lives in Colombia.  She debuted with Cosquillas en la lengua in 2003, and published Coleccionistas de polvos raros in 2007, the same year the Hay Festival selected her as one of the most promising young authors of Latin America. Her latest novel, The Bitch, won the prestigious Colombian Biblioteca de Narrativa Prize, and was selected for several Best Books of 2017 lists, as well as being chosen as one of the most valuable objects to preserve for future generations in a marble time capsule in Bogotá. The Bitch is the first of her works to be translated into English.

Follow @pili_quintana on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Amazon, Buy The Bitch

About the book
Colombia’s Pacific coast, where everyday life entails warding off the brutal forces of nature. In this constant struggle, nothing is taken for granted. Damaris lives with her fisherman husband in a shack on a bluff overlooking the sea. Childless and at that age “when women dry up,” as her uncle puts it, she is eager to adopt an orphaned puppy. But this act may bring more than just affection into her home.

The Bitch is written in a prose as terse as the villagers, with storms―both meteorological and emotional―lurking around each corner. Beauty and dread live side by side in this poignant exploration of the many meanings of motherhood and love.

Review  

Damaris wants someone or something to love - to love unconditionally. A puppy destined to die without care and attention seems the perfect solution to her needs, although she may not realise why she has picked her.

I am renowned for metaphors and analogies, especially ones I make up on the spot and often can't remember afterwards. Quite brilliant ones, if I do say so myself - my adult children don't share my enthusiasm or think they are quite that brilliant. One day I shall remember the one about the elephant and the pizza slices.

Anyway my point is that Quintana writes a book about a woman and a dog, and yet it's not really about a woman and a dog. It's an incredibly clever piece of literary fiction. I do however think it is also like art - open to interpretation. Each reader, and we all know that reading is a subjective experience, will connect certain elements of the read with their own frame of references.

For myself I found the core was Damaris and her infertility. Her inability to produce a child makes her feel inadequate. Shame turns to anger, frustration and eventually despondency. Why does society have such a hold on her womb and her fertility, and why does her marriage begin to crumble at every sign of failure.

Her relationship with the puppy is a direct parallel to the mother she believes others want her to be, the mother she thinks she wants to be, and ultimately the very real fear that she will be a catastrophe as a mother. The thought of failure to give love results in a growing feeling of anger towards the dog.

The abandonment issues born from her own mother abandoning her are triggered by the dog consistently leaving and not returning. The natural behaviour of the dog is exaggerated and experienced as planned. A self-fulfilling prophecy of hatred and violence evolves from a barren woman scorned by her contemporaries and a fertile dog who mirrors both what she wants to be and who Damaris really is.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's the kind of story you can dissect in book clubs and in educational settings. The idea of what it means to be a woman living under the rule of a patriarchal society that decides what her worth is, and the awakening of said woman when they recognise their inability to conform. The problem is what happens to such a woman in the interim and when they feel driven to the extreme.

Buy The Bitch at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: World Editions; pub date 4 Aug. 2020. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Waterstones.