Not a River: A Novel

"Selva Almada is, in many ways, the writer of the river. She often sets her stories on a river landscape. This has is rooted in a very interesting tradition in Argentinian literature or literature from the River Plate, whereby othe well-known writers have taken the river as a scenario to explore a certain narrative. Not a River is a book written by a woman, but the main characters are men. In other words, Selva shows in this novel a very masculine world. I don’t want to spoil the story, but the focus is on three big, masculine men who treat the river as if they were its owners. In the final segment of Not a River there is a part that really shocked me. It’s not like a film trailer, not that kind of shock, but the reader will certainly be impressed by the level of suspense. There’s a revelation of something that unfolds gradually as you read the book, but of course you never realise that there is something happening in the background as you progress with the story… It is a kind of epiphany."

"Let me put it into context. Selva Almada is an established, influential Argentinian writer who is compared to Flannery O’Conner, even William Faulkner. She’s published ten books, including novels, poetry, and short story collections. Not a River is part of a loose trilogy. It’s elegant, concise—less than 100 pages—and tense. It’s about three friends who go fishing in a remote part of Argentina and are haunted by memories of a tragic accident that occured years earlier. There’s an atmosphere of foreboding amidst the growing antagonism of the locals towards these men, who are regarded as intruders. As one of my fellow jurors pointed out, despite or maybe because of its title, Not a River moves like water, in currents. Dreams and time overlap, which shifts and shapes the stories and memories of the fishermen. The island where they set up camp is lush with jungle and heat and mosquitoes and ominously calm, dark waters. This sense of danger and foreboding is very strong. It pulses with its own desires and angers. Alongside this, there’s an almost mythic manta ray, a fish that seems to provoke the local people and has meaning for these men marred by grief. Silva Almada has said that she wanted to write Not a River because it’s part of her own story. The novel is inspired by the territory where she was born and raised, and by the people who inhabit that land and are, as she says, marginalised by government policies that condemn them to poverty, and to a lack of education and healthcare. It’s her tribute to the land and its people."