Synopsis:
In Our Share of the Night, a woman’s mysterious death puts her husband and son on a collision course with her demonic family.
A young father and son set out on a road trip, devastated by the death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travel to her ancestral home, where they must confront the terrifying legacy she has bequeathed: a family called the Order that commits unspeakable acts in search of immortality.
For Gaspar, the son, this maniacal cult is his destiny. As the Order tries to pull him into their evil, he and his father take flight, attempting to outrun a powerful clan that will do anything to ensure its own survival. But how far will Gaspar’s father go to protect his child? And can anyone escape their fate?
Moving back and forth in time, from London in the swinging 1960s to the brutal years of Argentina’s military dictatorship and its turbulent aftermath, Our Share of Night is a novel like no other: a family story, a ghost story, a story of the occult and the supernatural, a book about the complexities of love and longing with queer subplots and themes. This is the masterwork of one of Latin America’s most original novelists, “a mesmerizing writer,” says Dave Eggers, “who demands to be read.”
Edition:
E-ARC provided by Net Galley
My Thoughts:
Our Share of Night is not my first foray into Enriquez’s writing (I’ve also read the incredible Things We Lost in the Fire), and I now know for certain this will not be my last. I don’t know if it’s a testament to the strength of the writing, the quality of the translation, or – as I suspect – a bit of both, but this book is absolutely stunning.
The writing here is frankly amazing. Enriquez has a flow that I’m starting to feel might be unmatched by any of her peers. I can’t for the life of me understand how she crafted such a lengthy story, with so much exposition that the story certainly could have survived the loss of into such a work of art. I mean, really. She probably could have shaved 200 pages off and still had a perfectly good, scary story. But instead, she delivered what was essentially a cult-heavy epic.
“Ghosts are real. And the ones who come aren’t always the ones you’ve called.”
While the whole of the story is revealed almost agonizingly slowly. The pacing is reminiscent of some of my favorite horror films of the 60’s and early 70’s. Where you spend a good portion of the movie getting the idea that although things seem sort of okay on their surface, they most definitely are not. Like, at face value everything is a little off, but nothing you can entirely pin down. Then, after you’ve put in some time on exposition – BLAM! Everything is completely fucking bonkerballs.
The family is involved in something so brutally violent and terrible that it’s hard to believe. The Order is guilty of some pretty heinous shit, all in the service of their stupid end goal. They are willing to lie, cheat, steal, murder, traffic, etc. to get what they want. They’re despicable people. Gaspar and his father are such well-rounded characters. They are both so bent by trauma that it can be hard to sympathize with some of the choices each of them makes (or has made) throughout the story. But that is the magic of Our Share of Night – nobody is perfect, but some are light years better than others. That moral greyness makes for a much more interesting and nuanced reading experience.
Rating:
I highly recommend Our Share of Night if you’re the type of person who is in to long, narrative-heavy reading. This is a really wonderful book.
Our Share of Night) By Mariana Enríquez, Megan McDowell (Translator), Pablo Gerardo Camacho (Illustrator) Random House Publishing Group - Hogarth Published: February 7, 2023 (originally published 2019) ISBN: 9780451495143 Hardcover, Paperback, E-book, Audio 608 Pages
