Where does reality end and fiction begin?
On his eighteenth birthday, Carlos receives an unexpected gift: the inheritance from his father, who abandoned him when he was just a child.
Now, owning the apartment that once witnessed his progenitor’s past, Carlos decides to move there with the intention of discovering who that man he never got to know was.
Exploring the space, he discovers his father’s love for reading and his dream of becoming a writer.
One night, by the bed, Carlos finds a book that compiles all the tales of the Grimm brothers; as he delves into their stories, the border between fiction and reality fades, the tales come to life, and his father’s ghost becomes his guide, teaching him to navigate between these two realities. Furthermore, Carlos discovers the manuscript of a moving story about a butterfly unable to fly and a girl, the narrator’s daughter with his neighbor Amelia.
An unexpected twist bewilders Carlos when he meets his neighbor, also named Amelia, and doubt hovers over him. What is fiction and what is real? Carlos forgets this question when he begins to know Amelia, whom he falls in love with and starts a relationship.
Now, Carlos and Amelia live together, rent out Carlos’s apartment, and await the birth of their daughter, whom they name Macarena in honor of the butterfly from the story.
But happiness is threatened when Carlos becomes obsessed with his new tenant, as he is convinced that it is the reincarnation of his father. It is then that Carlos remembers the ending of the manuscript’s story: The death of the girl, which is strangely linked to the butterfly.
Carlos fears that the tragic fate told in the story will repeat with his baby and determined to protect his daughter, he immerses himself in a world where the line between reality and fiction completely blurs.
RELEVANT DATA: In his work Just smoke, the distinguished writer and journalist Juan José Millás explores the power of literature in the contemporary world and breaks the barrier that separates reality from fiction. With a nimble pen, he speaks of identity, the darkest and most extraordinary aspects of everyday life, and the experience of fatherhood.
Juan José Millás is a Spanish writer who stands out for creating his own literary genre, the “articuento,” in which any everyday event can become a fantastic event.
Millás has won the Nadal Prize, the Sésamo Prize, the Primavera Novel Prize, the Planeta Novel Prize, and the National Narrative Prize and has a faithful group of followers.
Readers have said:
“A dreamlike novel with its feet on the ground. Quick and intense. Ideal for the summer.” APAGEA.
“Juan José Millás owns a fantastic territory of unquestionable personality.” El País
“A mesmerizing tale with which to fly out of reality and believe in another more suggestive one.” Amazon.
AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Film, TV Movie.
AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish.
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