A beautiful novel with a forceful narrative. Through its involving first-person narrative, in which the protagonist takes over the text, we learn of the life of a seventeen-year-old boy blessed with an uncommon perceptiveness: we learn of his obsessions, his worries, his unease, his literary passions, and his subjective vision of reality in general. And we witness his emotional growth through his experience of love: he starts a relationshp with Rosalía, a upright, responsible girl, but falls in love with Esther, who, driven insane, ends up fleeing to Saint Petersburg and leaving him with Iris, perhaps halfway between the two and perfect for anyone who, like him, has just lost his mother and lives alone with a half-mad grandmother, putting up with a job he despises. An unsettling and moving work.