Tan cerca de la vida (Spanish Edition)

Roncagliolo's latest novel reads like a dream-or a nightmare. Max arrives in Tokyo, a setting that only augments his feelings of strangeness and isolation, to participate in a conference on artificial intelligence. Almost immediately, he starts to suffer from terrifying hallucinations that produce a sense of horror within the novel. His logistics work for Corporación Géminis does not endear him to conference attendees, and his lack of Japanese forces him to rely on his PDA for company-that is, until he meets a kindred spirit, a mute woman named Mai. There is something odd about the whole situation that cannot be fully attributed to the cultural gulf between East and West. The book has segments written in third, second, and first person that will give book groups ammunition for meaty discussions about the narrator's identity. While Roncagliolo's exploration of the boundaries of life and humanity will hold no surprises for fans of the movie Blade Runner, this popular author's new novel is recommended for large public libraries and general bookstores.—Sara Martínez, Hispanic Resource Ctr. Coordinator, Tulsa City-Cty. Lib. Syst.