Las Infantas. Lina Meruane. Integrated stories. Planeta 1998. Eterna Cadencia 2010. 176 pages.

In a tone that recalls Perrault’s classic tales for children, Lina Meruane narrates the adventures and misadventures of two princesses who leave the palace as their father is about to use them to back a wager in a game of cards. These ten tale-like episodes intertwine with eleven longer short stories, contemporary in style, to reveal the cruelty and ambivalence of a world, old and new, where childhood is still to be understood.

Fantasies, want, wishes, games shot through from start to finish with an erotic tension that is resolved in a way violating all convention. A moving, as well as disturbing book.

“Lina Meruane’s prose has great literary force: it emerges from the hammer blows of conscience, but also from the ungraspable and from pain”. Roberto Bolaño

“…Lina Meruane stands in the front ranks of our narrative, giving the reader a wink with her unique way of tossing out little verbal darts that make her worthy of the highest praise”. Milton Aguilar

“…Lina Meruane has a calling to the narrative and possesses a powerful language”. Camilo Marks

Published by: Spanish worldwide Eterna Cadencia