Such Small Hands

A dark uncanny jolt of literary perfection.

Her father died instantly, her mother in the hospital.

She has learned to say this flatly and without emotion, the way she says her name (Marina), her doll's name (also Marina) and her age (seven). Her parents were killed in a car crash and now she lives in the orphanage with the other little girls. But Marina is not like the other little girls.

In the curious, hyperreal, feverishly serious world of childhood, Marina and the girls play games of desire and warfare. The daily rituals of playtime, lunchtime and bedtime are charged with a horror; horror is licked by the dark flames of love. When Marina introduces the girls to Marina the Doll, she sets in motion a chain of events from which there can be no release.

With shades of Daphne du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Guillermo Del Toro and Mariana Enriquez, Such Small Hands is a beautifully controlled tour-de-force, a bedtime story to keep readers awake.

SALES POINTS

'Such Small Hands is more than just a scary story... This is so much worse' Susan Hill

Andrés Barba was one of Granta's Best of Young Spanish Novelists; here, with precision and dazzling skill, he has created a work that haunts (in all senses of the word)

REVIEWS

'Chilling, I am reminded of that quote from Elizabeth Bowen... 'No one can know the extent of the damage caused by young children whispering together,' Such Small Hands is more than just a scary story... This is so much worse', Susan Hill, author, The Woman in Black

'Such Small Hands is a book of layered and intricate beauty, a chasmlike narrative of trauma that keeps deepening and darkening as I reflect on it. It is tender and heart-tearing, sinister and compassionate. It is also one of the most meticulous, vivid accounts of childhood I have ever read', Megan Hunter