Only Smoke - by Juan José Millás (Paperback)

About the Book

"On his eighteenth birthday, Carlos receives a strange gift: his father, whom he never knew, has died and left him his apartment. As he goes through the man's belongings, Carlos comes across a manuscript that tells the unsettling story of a secret affair, a love child, and a butterfly. Is this a confession or pure fiction? As Carlos begins to make the apartment his own, he immerses himself in the tales of the Brothers Grimm left on the nightstand, embarking on a journey that will bring him closer to his father and teach him how to navigate the invisible borders between reality and fantasy, sanity and madness. At once wildly unpredictable, darkly entertaining, and surprisingly tender, Only Smoke is an ode to the imagination and the transformative power of liteerature"--

Book Synopsis

A son follows the breadcrumbs through a volume of Grimms' Fairy Tales in search of his estranged father

On his eighteenth birthday, Carlos receives a strange gift: his father, whom he never knew, has died and left him his apartment. As he goes through the man's belongings, Carlos comes across a manuscript that tells the unsettling story of a secret affair, a love child, and a butterfly. Is this a confession or pure fiction?

As Carlos begins to make the apartment his own, he immerses himself in the tales of the Brothers Grimm left on the nightstand, embarking on a journey that will bring him closer to his father and teach him how to navigate the invisible borders between reality and fantasy, sanity and madness.

At once wildly unpredictable, darkly entertaining, and surprisingly tender, Only Smoke is an ode to the imagination and the transformative power of literature.

Review Quotes

Shelf Awareness "Best Books This Week" selection

"Shuttles seamlessly between the 'official' reality of Madrid city life and the imaginary world of Grimms' Fairy Tales. . . . The fusion of fantasy and metafiction calls to mind Salman Rushdie, but Patricia Highsmith--namechecked in the novel--is another influence. The startling ending of Only Smoke is nasty, vengeful and perfectly happy, a combination that the Brothers Grimm and Highsmith alike would appreciate." --Wall Street Journal

"Spellbinding. As they did with their beguiling translation of From the Shadows, Thomas Bunstead and Daniel Hahn adeptly capture the crispness of Millás's dialogue and dark humor. . . . [Only Smoke] can be read in a day. Then again and again. Like a very good fairy tale." --Words Without Borders

"Only Smoke embeds a variety of issues into a fairytale storyline. . . . An expertly crafted and thought-provoking read." --PopMatters

"Explores big ideas about life and reading. . . . Swift, smooth language clips out a story that is part bildungsroman and part cautionary tale. . . . It is a silhouette of a story the way Aesop's fables are silhouettes. Every character is an outline and an argument. Every action is a means to an end." --Zona Motel

"Unpredictable, introspective. . . . This wonder of a book can be experienced in one or two sittings and encourages a second reading." --Library Journal (starred review)

"[A] superb translation. . . . Only Smoke is a captivating and thought-provoking modern fairy tale, a real joy for readers who love narratives that play with the craft of storytelling, penned by a contemporary master." --Shelf Awareness

"Millás demolishes notions of the quotidian while shining the brightest light on everyday occurrences. Imagination and reality coexist, and the dive into the fairyland of the Brothers Grimm becomes tense, thrilling, and incredibly revealing. Only Smoke is a work of genius strokes, of daring tenderness where a hidden horror lies, lingering to shatter the most precious. It is a wondrous gift of many layers." --award-winning filmmaker Antonio Méndez Esparza, director of Something Is About to Happen, based on Juan José Millás's Let No One Sleep

About the Author

Juan José Millás is a bestselling Spanish author and recipient of Spain's most prestigious literary prizes: the Premio Nadal, Premio Planeta, and Premio Nacional de Narrativa. He is the author of several short story collections and works of nonfiction as well as over a dozen novels, including three published in North America: From the Shadows, Let No One Sleep, and Only Smoke. A regular contributor to El País, Millás has also won many awards for his journalism. He lives in Madrid.