Only Smoke - Paperback

by Juan José Millás (Author), Thomas Bunstead (Translator), Daniel Hahn (Translator)

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.

Author Biography

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.