THE SPHERE OF TIME

In Vidal’s cerebral debut novel, a man finds a book about a former lover that reshapes the story of his own life.

In 1953, Andrés Santaella met a 20-year-old woman named Leire Quirós in a police station in southern Spain. The young lawyer was hired to represent her as she faced charges of helping her parents plunder a sunken shipwreck. Released into Andrés’ custody, Leire began an affair with her lawyer, but she later vanished from his life. About two decades later, Andrés visits a bookstore in New York City where he comes across a book called The Sphere of Time, with no writer credited, but with Leire’s picture on the cover: “This is a biography, my mother’s, ruled by strange forces which control our lives: chance and chaos,” reads the jacket. “It is a story about the passing of time, about memory, about dreams cut short and about death; a story that blends illusion and reality, just like any other.” In the book, Andrés learns about aspects of Leire’s background for the first time—as well as an account of himself and their affair. Then he comes across a detail he never knew: that Leire was pregnant with his child when she disappeared. With the book as his guide, Andrés sets out to reconnect with Leire and their child, who would now be an adult. However, this journey proves to be more difficult than he thought it would be. Over the course of this book, Vidal writes in a dreamy prose style that perfectly shifts between Andrés’ present and the various narratives contained in Leire’s biography.There are moments when the book-within-a-book structure results in a lack of clarity, but it generally makes for an engrossing read. Vidal leans into the gauziness of his fictional world, playing games with time and memory in ways that are often bittersweet. Some will likely find the novel overly sentimental—and there are moments when it surely is—but those who enjoy the subtle magic of an unlikely story will find much to appreciate.

A cleverly executed story about finding answers in one’s past.