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Muerte de un caballo
“Barba’s short novel is an intense examination of inner life and one’s conscious and subconscious response to situations, looks, gestures and words.” (Rosalind Harvey)
A horse that lies dying after an accident, a couple who don’t dare to love each other, and a teenage boy. As if it were a small 'chamber novella', these simple elements are used in 'Muerte de un caballo' to articulate an entire discourse on love and death. The fear of loving, the experience of death and accidents, the slow internal discovery of the other and oneself when faced with the other. In reality the scene is motionless, as in a photograph, but the internal movement of the protagonists' thoughts and wishes revolve around the dying horse, as they try not only to understand what has happened, but also to understand what they really want. In the end, the moribund animal becomes a kind of centre of gravity, before which it is no longer possible to lie to oneself or to others, a blank centre that forces the characters to accept what they feel and desire.