When you begin reading The Dance and the Fire by the Mexican author Daniel Saldaña París, winner of the 2020 Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Global Literature Prize, and Apuntes para una despedida by the Spanish author Javier Serena, editor of the magazine Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, there is a tension that emanates from the pages and envelops you like mist. There is a constant sense of menace in the relationship between three friends who are reunited and share a past that remains unresolved (The Dance and the Fire); and the same is true of the final stages of a romantic relationship heading for its end (Apuntes para una despedida).
