From the Shadows

Written by Daniel Hahn, Thomas Bunstead and Juan José Millás

Narrated by Thom Rivera

A petty thief finds himself stuck acting as the butler to a seemingly idyllic home and becomes deeply and disastrously involved with his unknowing host family.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media
• Release date: Oct 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781666591934

Daniel Hahn

Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor, and translator, with some eighty books to his name. His work has won him the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award, and has been shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, among many others. His recent translations include Diamela Eltit’s Never Did the Fire, a novel, and Sidarta Ribeiro’s The Oracle of Night, a nonfiction book about neuroscience and dreaming.

Reviews for From the Shadows

[seeword · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is so hard to review. A man shoplifts, then hides in a wardrobe to avoid detection, the wardrobe is packed up (with the man still in it) and delivered to a suburban home. The man remains hidden. He hides in the house and does housekeeping chores while the family is away. He gets involved in the family dynamics. Will he be found out? It's so improbable and yet so fascinating! Weird, but I loved it! Free review copy.

[JamesGunnNorquay · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Truly weird but wonderful characters, a thoroughly entertaining and at times gripping tale.

[xiguli · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

FROM THE SHADOWS is a strange, hard-to-categorize novel. It's presented as real events in the real world, but often stretches credulity to the point that it has the feel of fantasy. It's written in third person, but the majority of what we learn about Damián Lobo comes via interviews he conducts with the TV personalities he converses with in his own head. Therefore what we know about him comes to us through his own first-person voice, challenged and prodded by ratings-eager interviewers who, we remain aware, are also himself. As Damián insinuates himself into the lives of a family whose members never see him, his situation becomes less and less probable, but also more deeply, voyeuristically interesting. FROM THE SHADOWS courses along steadily. I found the story intriguing and the translation smooth; it is not a "difficult" novel in any typical sense — neither emotionally taxing nor stylistically convoluted.Certain aspects disturbed me, though. Damián's adoptive sister comes up repeatedly — his first sexual experiences were with her, hinting at profound familial dysfunction, but the topic is never explored. She is never referred to by name, only as his "Chinese sister," over and over and over again, a strange act of othering which may be true to Damián's character but which never gets resolved or even acknowledged. At no point could I forget that everything happening in the book is wildly, ludicrously unlikely (although that didn't keep me from enjoying how it unfolded). The ending, which I won't spoil, leaves a vast question mark dangling over the whole novel.Ultimately, this is a light-hearted book with some twisted ramifications that remain unexplored. Readers who want every detail accounted for and every implication followed up on will grind their teeth at how much author Juan José Millás leaves unsaid, but I enjoyed myself and find this a refreshing, worthwhile piece of odd fiction.

[artistlibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Damian Lobo narrates his life through a television interview in front of a live audience. The catch is the tv studio is inside his head. It sounds absurd but it’s hardly different from “talking to ourselves.” Through these interviews, we hear Lobo describe how he hid inside of a wardrobe to avoid the police and then travel with that wardrobe to its new home, that of a suburban family with historical ties to the furniture piece. Slowly, Lobo becomes an invisible butler for the family. And slowly, Lobo begins to live outside his mind. From the Shadows is a Kafka-esque adventure and each chapter will have you simultaneously thinking “this is terrible and absurd” yet “this is an honest portrayal of what it means to be human.” I received this book through Library Thing’s Early Reviewer program.

[noveltea_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Entertainingly disturbing and thought-provoking. Recommended!One obvious reason to read foreign literature is to learn about other places. In this particular novel from Spain, I discovered a VERY recognizable world largely focused on media and the Internet and the idea of fame. Yet precisely because the main character has the ongoing habit of interviewing himself in his head, I was more than once disoriented by his cold-blooded past-tense narration of events still unfolding suspensefully in the present. To begin with I found our antihero, Damián Lobo, fairly off-putting, particularly in his fetishizing of his “Chinese sister.” But his imaginary interviews show that he wants more than anything to be known, to be understood. So it almost seems a victory of sorts that even as his actions become more and more extreme, he gets better at explaining himself and the world around him. Somehow he SOUNDS saner the more insane he clearly is. Sure, the guy is crazy—AND it’s a crazy world.

[bale_5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Darkly humorous and surreal, this novel delivers! It is psychological and allegorical fiction rolled into one as is revealed through these alluring themes: family secrets, jealousy, love, voyeurism, madness and murder. I thoroughly enjoyed and savored the skill, pure imagination and creativity of this talented author. From the Shadows is the first of Millás' novels to be published in North America. I look forward to future translations of his other work. A true treat!

[librarianshannon_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Damian Lobo narrates his life through a television interview in front of a live audience. The catch is the tv studio is inside his head. It sounds absurd but it’s hardly different from “talking to ourselves.” Through these interviews, we hear Lobo describe how he hid inside of a wardrobe to avoid the police and then travel with that wardrobe to its new home, that of a suburban family with historical ties to the furniture piece. Slowly, Lobo becomes an invisible butler for the family. And slowly, Lobo begins to live outside his mind. From the Shadows is a Kafka-esque adventure and each chapter will have you simultaneously thinking “this is terrible and absurd” yet “this is an honest portrayal of what it means to be human.” I received this book through Library Thing’s Early Reviewer program.

[lriley_43 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Millas's first English translated book. From the Shadows kind of reminded of someone say like Bioy Casares. Most writers IMO would take this kind of material and turn it into a tense psychological thriller. This has a light and philosophical air to it. So in a way it's a very strange book--a hapless Walter Mitty-ish home invader hanging around in a closet spying on an unsuspecting family but also influencing unfolding events....so there's a bit of a schizoid creepiness to the main character too.Kudos to the publisher Bellevue Literary Press for sending me another book at the same time--Pascale Kramer's Autopsy of a Father.

[lizzied_11 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Oh Weird![From the Shadows] draws the reader immediately into the mind (which is the world) of Damián Lobo, a maintenance supervisor recently laid off and lost in the mundane life of modern Madrid. Lobo's internal monologue is, in fact, a dialogue between himself and his creation, Sergio O'Kane, host of his own television talk show. O'Kane's ratings rise when Lobo is trapped in a huge wardrobe and moved from the antique mall where he entered it into a suburban home. Lobo is intrigued by the life of the strangers, whose unseen guest he is, and makes himself a hidey-hole in a built-in wardrobe behind the one in which he arrived. He spends his time alone in the house cleaning, making repairs, and reading books about the paranormal, and his time when the occupants are there in his roomy coffin in the master bedroom listening to the husband and wife and reporting to O'Kane and his audience.The tone is low key; the translation is admirable. The reader follows Lobo deeper and deeper into his dissociation from the world and obsession with this family, especially the wife. It's funny. It's appalling. My thanks to Early Reviewers and Bellevue Literary Press for the opportunity to read it!

[snash_44 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sometimes surreal, sometimes humorous, sometimes sad and pathetic, the book describes alienation and the power of fantasy: thoroughly enjoyable while revealing the the human condition.

[felliot-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I received an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.From the Shadows by Juan Jose Millas is theater of the absurd for the 21st. Century. It is the story of Damian Lobo, an ‘everyman’ that lives so far into his own head that he imagines that he is actually in a TV studio being interviewed about his life as it is happening in the real world. After escaping from the police for an act of petty larceny, he finds himself living inside the suburban house of a very suburban family. Instead of leaving, he makes himself a home inside a wardrobe and becomes the family’s unseen caretaker. Told in a voice that is both fantastic and full of dark humor, From the Shadows is more than just a romp through a very strange mind. It is a modern tale of alienation, voyeurism, and madness. This very well may be the strangest book you will read this year, but read it you should.

[technodiabla · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was concerned, given the absurdist plot, that the reading would be stream of conscious, non-linear, and hard to follow. Not at all! This short novel was a strange, but easy, read. The main character makes for an interesting psychological study as he evolves his identity and psychoses. I didn't quite identify with him (be concerned if you do!) but I was rooting for him in a strong way, even as he really slipped into destructive madness. Most stories like this are written with an air of violence but this made the madness seem peaceful, almost sweet. I do highly recommend this book for anyone who reads the back cover, and thinks "maybe." Go for it.

[vaniamk13 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

From the Shadows is a critique of middle-class culture and social media, and a comment on personal identity and growing alienation in the ever more modern Madrid of today. It starts off as an outright comedy, then slowly evolves into a more sinister, but always humorous, world as the plot veers through a family's secrets and individual peccadilloes towards what might be one very lonely man's madness. Consistently entertaining throughout, this short novel reads at first like a light farce but finishes in a much darker place. If this work is typical of Millás's skills as a writer, I'd expect to see many more of his works in English translation soon.