Oldladyvoice
Nine-year old Marina may swear like a sailor and think like a novelist, but even the most exceptional child can get lost on the road to adulthood.
While her mother is in the hospital with a grave but unnamed illness, Marina spends the summer with her grandmother, waiting to hear whether she’ll get to go home or be bundled off, newly orphaned, to a convent school. There are no rules at Grandma’s, but that also means there are no easy ways to fend off the visions of sex and violence that torment and titillate the girl.
Presenting a unique and vivid take on the coming-of-age novel, Oldladyvoice reimagines childhood through the eyes of its one-of-a-kind, hilarious, perceptive and endearing narrator.
Read an Excerpt
About the Book
If you subscribed to And Other Stories by Sunday 9th May 2021, you will receive your limited edition copy of Oldladyvoice – in which all subscribers are thanked by name – in August 2021, before its official publication, as well as up to five other specially selected And Other Stories titles per year. Find out more about.
More Info
- On our Ampersand blog, you can read why translator Charlotte Whittle wanted us to publish Elisa Victoria’s Oldladyvoice.
- You can find out more about how Elisa Victoria wrote Oldladyvoice, and what inspired her, here.
Reviews
AK Blakemore
The Guardian
‘More than anything, [Oldladyvoice] is hugely good fun. Victoria’s prose is effervescent, her jokes never miss their marks, and the observations of her young narrator feel as tender as they do authentic. I loved this wise, warped little jewel of a novel.’
New York Times
‘Elisa Victoria handles the child’s narration dexterously . . . Relying on short, declarative sentences, Victoria has a knack for bringing characters to life in few words.’
Ben Brooks
‘Sad, funny, sharp, and poetic: the best possible ingredients for a book. The perfect chronicle of a smart girl in a stupid world.’
Vice
‘Perfectly captures what it was like to be a kid in the mythologised ’90s.’
Phrasebook
‘As a general rule, I am opposed to fiction written from the perspective of a child. It’s not that I’m uninterested in childhood as a concept, or even in children themselves – far from it – but some writers use childhood as a lazy shortcut, an easy way to introduce such broad themes as “innocence lost.” . . . Happily, the Spanish writer Elisa Victoria’s debut novel, Oldladyvoice (translated by Charlotte Whittle), is the exact opposite of this. . . Childhood makes a lot more sense when you remember that children are basically madcap little degenerates, fascinated by their own filth, and I love that Victoria isn’t shy about portraying this.’
El Mundo
‘A tender and poignant story, full of light and just the right amount of wickedness.’
Elvira Linda
El País
‘From the first page, a seductive universe comes into view. It’s similar to love at first sight, and there’s no need for hesitation, just for the most innocent surrender.’
Paula de Aguirre
Le Cool Barcelona
‘Good novels find their protagonist’s voice and make the reader feel close to them. Such is the case of Oldladyvoice. […] The magic of Oldladyvoice also lies in its supporting characters (the grandmother, mother and mother’s boyfriend) and the conversations they have with Marina, which can make you smile and break your heart in the same line.’
César Prieto
Efe Eme music magazine
‘Marina is firing the last bullets of her childhood, and she does it in a clean, powerful shot of poetry, hope, and zest for life.’
