Nanna Papanikolaou | Translating "Us" by Manuel Vilas

Nanna Papanikolaou is featured in our "Translation Workshop" column, speaking to us about the new novel by Manuel Vilas, Nosotros (Us), which she translated and was recently published in Greek. It is a book that explores the boundaries of love and the depths of a psyche trapped in a dangerous utopia, where the Mediterranean Sea becomes the refuge of a woman struggling with loneliness to keep the "us" alive, transforming grief into an almost sacred ritual of love.

Starting Nosotros, one has the sense that this is the journey of a wealthy and somewhat eccentric beautiful woman—a journey full of brief erotic adventures that she herself pursues, leaving behind wounded lovers, both men and women.

Throughout these travels, across places and human bodies, Vilas also speaks of nature, of the pursuits and ambitions that captivate and thrill people, and of small details that can move them, however insignificant they may seem, because they are connected to memories and experiences that have left a mark on them.

And just when you think you are witnessing the adventures of a slightly unhinged woman who doesn't quite know how to spend her vast fortune, you realize that all of this is being done to soothe the pain of a loss; it is the reaction to the death of a beloved husband, a partner who was ideal for this woman, who now believes that lovers are the means to encounter her lost companion.

Yet, things are not as they appear, and this is not the only revelation for the reader as they progress through the book. Others follow, slowly leading the reader to the ultimate question. For the essence of the book is not merely loneliness, loss, or madness.

With the mastery that characterizes him, Manuel Vilas leads you into another meditation to torment your thoughts long after you close the book: Is the person you love who you think they are, or do you love someone you have created in your own mind? Do those around you see the person you see, or do they see someone else? Inevitably, the relentless question, without asking for your permission, moves away from the book's protagonist and is projected onto yourself. You are the one called upon to answer.