A Luminous Republic

San Cristóbal was an unremarkable city—small, newly prosperous, contained by rain forest & river. But then the children arrived. No one knew where they came from: thirty-two kids, seemingly born of the jungle, speaking an unknown language. 

At first they scavenged, stealing food & money & absconding to the trees. But their transgressions escalated to violence, & then the city’s own children began defecting to join them. Facing complete collapse, municipal forces embark on a hunt to find the kids before the city falls into irreparable chaos. 

Narrated by the social worker who led the hunt, A Luminous Republic is a suspenseful, anguished fable that “could be read as Lord of the Flies seen from the other side, but that would rob Barba of the profound originality of his world” (Juan Gabriel Vásquez). 

"Wholly compelling.” — Colm Tóibín

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Andrés Barba is a multi-awarded Spanish novelist, essayist, translator, scriptwriter _ photographer. He is the author of a total of thirteen books of literary fiction, non-fiction, photography, arts, & children's literature.

Lisa Dillman teaches in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at Emory University & has translated numerous works of fiction by Argentine, Mexican, Catalan, & Spanish writers. She has translated many of Barba's books into English.