"Why?"
"Because I know you'll like it and be good at it."
They looked at each other for a long time, neither saying a word. There was nothing more to say. Sofia rose from her chair, and Umberto D'Alaqua accompanied her to the door. He took her hand in his and kissed it, holding it for a few seconds before he finally let it go.
She limped down the steps without looking back, but she felt D'Alaqua's eyes on her and knew that no one has any power over the past, that the past cannot be changed, that the present is a reflection of what we were, and that there is only a future if you never take a single step back.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JULIA NAVARRO is a well-known Madrid-based journalist and political analyst for Agencia OTR/Europa Press, as well as a correspondent for other prominent Spanish radio and television networks and print media. The English translation of her second novel,
The Bible of Clay,
will be published in 2008.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
ANDREW HURLEY is best known for his translation of Jorge Luis Borges's
Collected Fictions
and Reinaldo Arenas's Pentagonia novels, among many other translated works of literature, criticism, history, and memoir. He lives and works in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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