Agustín Fernández Mallo
Macmillan
16 February 2027
176
eBook - PDF
Literary Fiction
ARC via Edelweiss
A son re-creates his dying father’s journey from fifty years ago, illuminating a strange, beguiling portrait of a century of Spanish history, and the fading memories of their relationship.
In this captivating tightrope act of autofiction, Agustín Fernández Mallo shares the story of two parallel journeys taken by a father and a son—each separated by half a century of Spanish history and their own complex and layered relationship.
In 1967, the father of Mallo’s narrator (also Agustín Fernández Mallo), a veterinarian from the Galician countryside and a firm believer in the power of science, undertakes a trip through America, hoping to return with a herd of cows. Fifty years later, as his father’s memory begins to fade and his famous scientific objectivity begins to fail him, Mallo embarks on his own journey through the United States, attempting to bring the past back to life. Even as he restages scenes from his father’s American sojourn, he is visited by memories of their shared life and of the era that preceded it—a fast-disappearing century of Spanish history and family lore.
Atom Heart Mother was a work that started slowly but that soon drew me into the narrative. Ostensibly the tale of a son recreating an earlier journey made by his father in an attempt to connect with him and understand their relationship as his father's life ends, this work was also an exploration of the nature of relationships and memory and how time can distort the truth creating more of a family mythology around events. This was not a work with a strong central plot line but rather a meandering tale and rumination. As such, it may not suit every reader, but I found it compelling and thoughtful, so I am giving it 4 stars,
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
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