LS6 (novel)
LS6 (or, including the subtitle of the Spanish edition, LS6: Narradores de nuestro tiempo) is the first novel by Mario Crespo, published in 2011 by Bohodón Ediciones.[1] The novel was chosen as a Spanish representative at the Festival du Premier roman at Chambéry in 2012.[2][3]
Summary
LS6 is set in the English city of
West Yorkshire Playhouse
entitled The Death of Margaret Thatcher, during which the West Yorkshire Playhouse blows up due to a gas leak.
In order, the sections and their protagonists are:
- LS1: Francisco Jose Alvarez, an unemployed Spanish ham-carver who gets into a car crash alongside his British-Pakistani drug-dealer Nino. He comes into possession of tickets to the play when stealing a handbag.
- LS2: Julianne Redgrave, a British widow in late middle age in need of intellectual stimulation and affection. She is invited to the play by a grocer at Kirkgate Market.
- LS3: Andres Ramos, a Colombian who has through a series of migrations escaped the FARC and loses his job as a chicken-sexer in Morleywhen he beats up a Peruvian-Japanese colleague. He attends the play after finding a ticket dropped by Francisco.
- LS6: Leo Carragher, a British-Italian theatre usher and frustrated intellectual nearing retirement. He is an usher at the play.
- LS4: Filipe, a dancer and actor from Cape Verde who is seeking a meaningful relationship in a life defined by showbusiness. He is an actor in the play.
- LS5: Ramtin, a Kurdish refugee from Iran who is seeking a publisher for a novel he has written, and a philosophical novel that he is planning. He is given a spare ticket to the play by his new-found publisher.
The novel is explicitly set during the
Financial crisis of 2007–2008, with characters musing on these circumstances and on neoliberalism
.
Translations
- LS6, trans. by Sally Ashton with Steve Dearden ([no place]: Dead Ink, 2016), ISBN 978-0993401404.
Reviews
- 'Postmodernidad solvente', Estado crítico: Crítica litteraria diletante (27 December 2011).
- N. S., '«LS6», la primera novela del escritor Mario Crespo, traducida al inglés', La Opinión: El correa de Zamora (10 January 2013).
References
- ISBN 978-8415172031.
- ^ 'Coup de cœur pour Mario Crespo', Le Dauphine (29 May 2012).
- ^ N. S., 'Francia aprecia la obra de Mario Crespo', La Opinión: El correa de Zamora (13 June 2012).