From Savagery: From Venezuela to Spain

In the heat of Barcelona beats the pulse of a new underclass. Once the bright future of Venezuela, a cohort disappeared after the country's surreal collapse. From savagery young lives emerge and take flight on a different continent: friends prevailing, there before the world but under its radar.

Alejandra Banca’s unforgettable fiction debut ‘From Savagery’ brings us a group of fierce and vulnerable young migrants living in Spain, from Maria Eugenia, pedaling eighty-four frenetic hours a week, to Cheo who looks forward to the arrival of his girlfriend from Venezuela, but has yet to tell her he is married to Andres. These are stories bursting with laughter, fear and hope.

We’re absolutely delighted to have Alejandra Banca visiting Edinburgh alongside the book’s translator Katie Brown, here to tell you all about the book, its story and the lives that inhabit it.

This event will be 30 mins followed by audience questions and signing. Please feel free to attend any or all of these depending on your capacity!

Our speakers:

Alejandra Banca studied literature at Andrés Bello University in Caracas. Fleeing Venezuela’s collapse, she emigrated to Spain and lives in Barcelona where she worked in several hospitality and cold sales jobs before establishing herself as an English teacher. Banca’s poetry has appeared in various anthologies. From Savagery is her first book and is the winner of a PEN Translates Award.

Katie Brown is a senior lecturer in Modern Languages at Exeter University. An expert on contemporary Latin American culture, she has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s “Open Book” and is part of the women’s UK, US, and Venezuelan translation collective, Colaboratorio Ávila. Her translations appear regularly in the quarterly journal, Latin American Literature Today .