NEW YORK – It took Pilar Quintana four years and a few drafts to write “The Abysses” (“Los Abismos”,) winner of the 2021 Alfaguara Novel Prize.
Quitana’s worries regarding maternity, and her “irrational” childhood terror of becoming an orphan, inspired the Colombian author to write this story about a young girl who reflects on her parents' troubled marriage with extraordinary perception and sensitivity. “Maternity helps you reconnect with the child that you were and to understand him and relive that phase of your life that we tend to forget as adults,” says Quintana, who has a 5-year-old son.
The author, 49, whose previous novel “The Bitch” (“La Perra”) was shortlisted for the 2020 National Book Award in Translated Literature, was