Manuel Roca y sus dos hijos viven en una vieja granja aislada. Un día, un Mercedes con cuatro hombres dentro sube por el camino que lleva a la casa. Algo tan terrible como indescriptible está a punto de suceder, algo que cambiará la vida de todos de manera irremediable, sobre todo la vida de la pequeña Nina. Una historia que hurga en las profundidades del alma humana.
Los protagonistas son víctimas de una guerra infinita que despierta las pasiones y los instintos más escondidos. La espiral de odio que engulle a los personajes sólo parece disolverse gracias a la decisión de Nina, quien sabrá dar sentido y futuro al dolor mayor... El celebrado retorno del autor de Seda a la novela corta.

I chanced upon this slim volume, lying hidden amidst a pile of "desperate-to-be-sold" books at the bookstore. The other books really looked like they deserved this desperation but there was something to Alessandro Baricco's Without Blood that made me pick it up.

There is a silken, mesmerizing quality to Without Blood. It begins with one of the most dramatic openings I have read - four men meet in a farmhouse, and settle an old feud with a former doctor. Nina, the doctor's daughter is the only one who survives the bloody massacre but that is only due to Tito, the youngest assassin who finds her hiding, and who in a moment of redemption spares her.

Fast forward 52 years later, and we find Nina meeting Tito. Through this conversation laced with delicate intrigue we are led to understand that Tito is the only survivor now - the others were murdered. You think the obvious - Tito is the next target. But Baricco is masterful - he draws us closer to an end that is neither predictable or common, but is wonderfully illuminating about the vastness of the human sphere. Complexly beautiful.

Without Blood can be read in just around 45 minutes or so, and it is well worth it if we can make space in our life for those 45 minutes. Because some moments from this book, especially the classic ending deserve a special memory in our time and space - they will last 52 years too. ( )

Alessandros Baricco's very brief novel Without Blood is divided into two parts. The first depicts events in an unnamed country caught up in violent conflict. Three men lay siege to a farmhouse, finally killing the owner, Manuel Roca, after a bloody firefight, along with his young son. One of the men discovers a trap door in the floor of the house, where Roca has stashed his daughter Nina. He opens the door and he and the girl exchange glances. The girl turns away and without a word he closes the door and leaves, not giving the girl up to his murderous companions. In the second part a woman of late middle age encounters an elderly man selling newspapers at a kiosk in an unnamed city. She convinces him to come with her, first to a cafe where they share a bottle of wine, and then to a hotel room where they sleep together. The woman is Nina and the man, whose name is Tito, is the last survivor of the team who killed her father some fifty years earlier. Their conversation--which begins at the kiosk, continues over wine, and ends in the hotel room--covers all manner of topics related to murder and killing and revenge and war. But the main question that Nina has for this man who helped to obliterate her family is Why? Without Blood is a strange, dreamlike little book. At 97 pages, it is too short for us to form any kind of bond with the characters (though we feel sympathy for Tito, who fears for his life when Nina confronts him, and then resigns himself to whatever fate awaits) but nonetheless leaves us thinking about war and its victims, and the capricious nature of mercy. In the end, Baricco succeeds in blurring the line between perpetrator and victim and manages to speak volumes about forgiveness. ( )

Manuel Roca y sus dos hijos viven en una vieja granja aislada. Un día, un Mercedes con cuatro hombres dentro sube por el camino que lleva a la casa. Algo tan terrible como indescriptible está a punto de suceder, algo que cambiará la vida de todos de manera irremediable, sobre todo la vida de la pequeña Nina. Una historia que hurga en las profundidades del alma humana. Los protagonistas son víctimas de una guerra infinita que despierta las pasiones y los instintos más escondidos. La espiral de odio que engulle a los personajes sólo parece disolverse gracias a la decisión de Nina, quien sabrá dar sentido y futuro al dolor mayor... ( )

Wat langer uitgelopen novelle in 2 delen. Het eerste deel beschrijft een gewelddadige afrekening in wat een western-achtige setting lijkt; het is erg filmisch beschreven in een zuinige stijl. Het tweede deel, 60 jaar later, brengt twee hoofdfiguren weer samen in een dialoog die illustreert hoe verschillend percepties kunnen zijn, en hoe ideologie en dwangmatige wraakzin het leven kunnen verzieken en die een beetje voorspelbaar eindigt. Literair bijna perfect, dit is een gave novelle. ( )