EDEBÉ Young Adult Literature Award 2019: THE FRANKENSTEIN EFFECTby Elia Barceló
Being a woman, a 21st century medical student, wearing zippered pants and having your own criteria is not the best camouflage to go unnoticed among the university society of the time of Victor Frankenstein.
As if it were Alice falling down the rabbit hole, a young woman travels to the end of the 18th century, immersing herself in the context of the work of Gothic literature and pioneer of science fiction par excellence: Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley.
Nora, the protagonist, will have to dress up as a man and also as a young lady; adapt to the clothing and customs of the time to help her friend Max solve the problem with the creature that her irresponsible friend Victor has created and abandoned in her laboratory.
A style work spin off full of literary references from the work Frankenstein, which in 2018 marked the 200th anniversary of its publication. And a great tribute to its author Mary Shelley, who even makes a cameo in this novel.
The Frankenstein effect It opens an axis of dialogue between two eras and makes us reflect on gender inequality both professionally and socially. Likewise, as in Shelley's work, it also reiterates the moral obligation to fulfill the responsibilities and consequences of our actions.
A story with a rhythm of love, science fiction, mystery... and unexpected characters!
Work presented in Spanish aimed at readers from 14 years of age.
Publication: March 2019
Fragment:
“He opened his eyes to a darkness where a bright orange light painted stripes on the wall as it passed through a half-open blind. He didn't know where he was and for a moment he felt like he was suffocating, scared, because he didn't recognize the ceiling of the room or anything that was around him.
He closed his eyes again. Sometimes things like that would happen and in a few seconds everything would fall back into place and things would clear up by themselves. She opened them again, slowly, as if giving her brain a chance to get going and offer her the answer she was looking for.
Nothing. She still didn't know where she was and why she had woken up there at dusk. Had she drunk too much the night before and had a roommate offer him to stay at her house?
He sat up suddenly and sat on the bed with a tightness in his chest that, if it wasn't terror, was very much like it. He didn't remember anything from the night before. Nothing. His mind was a black hole, a desert, a total void.
Elia Barceló
Elia Barceló is considered one of the most important science fiction writers in the Spanish language, which has earned her the title of “the great lady of science fiction.” From her first texts she was very clear that what interested her most was narrating the extraordinary. Not necessarily the fantastic or the supernatural but what is not everyday.
Born in Alicante in 1957, she studied Anglo-Germanic Philology in Valencia and Hispanic Philology in Alicante, and obtained her doctorate at the University of Innsbruck, where she has lived for 37 years.
He published his first story (science fiction) at the age of twenty-two and at thirty-two (1989) his first book. Sagrada. Since then she has written regularly, combining literature with university teaching until a year ago.
Elia Barceló has published some sixty stories and twenty-five novels, of which twelve are youth literature. His stories and novels have appeared in nineteen languages.
In 1997 he wrote his first novel Young Adult, El caso del artista cruel, with which he won his first award Edebé, and since then I have continued writing for young people addressing different topics. In 2007, she was again awarded the Edebé Young Adult Literature award with Cordeluna.
His work has been recognized on numerous occasions. She has received the Celsius 232 for fantastic novel 2014 for Children of the Red Clan, the 2016 Valencian Literary Criticism Award for the book of short stories La Maga and other cruel tales and just two months ago the Ignotus 2018 Award for the best fantasy story published in the year by Smoke and mirrors.
His last literary title has been The color of silence which has had ten editions in a year and is in its second edition in paperback since October.