Of Beasts and Fowls

Spanish writer Adon makes her English-language debut with the enchanting and nightmarish story of an artist entrapped by strangers. Coro, a successful painter, acts on a restless urge to get in her car and drive through her unnamed country without looking back. A day later, lost and without her phone, she veers down a dark road in search of gas. She stops at a house where a pair of women seem not to understand her and offer her a cup of hot milk that turns out to be drugged. The next morning, Coro wakes in a strange bed and begins to realize she won’t be leaving anytime soon. The remote lakeside estate is home to three women and four girls, all in antiquated dress. With eerie nonchalance, they tell her to settle in: “We know you perfectly. That’s why you are here,” one of the women says. When Coro’s escape attempts are thwarted, she searches for answers from the girls, the youngest of whom reminds her of her lost sister. Eventually, her hopes settle on Tobias, a man who arrives at the house and claims it belongs to him. But as Tobias’s presence intrudes on the women’s bucolic routines of gardening, tending to their goats, and making crafts, Adon suggests Coro might be happier staying. The novel’s dream logic is as intoxicating as the secluded setting. Readers will eagerly turn the pages of this beguiling literary thriller. (Nov.)