Little Eyes

"Of course not," said Katia, and she darted out of the room. "Get ready!" she cried as she ran down the hall.

Robin didn't usually feel all that comfortable with these games, though she admired Katia's and Amy's nerve, and the way they talked to boys, and how they managed to keep their hair always smelling good and their nails perfectly painted. When the games crossed certain lines, Robin wondered if they might not be testing her. She'd been the last one to join the "club," as they called themselves, and she tried hard to be worthy.

Katia returned to the room with her backpack. She sat down in front of the bucket and freed the panda.

"Pay attention," she said, looking at the camera, and the bear's eyes followed her.

Robin wondered if it could understand them. It seemed to hear them perfectly well, and they were speaking English, which is what everyone speaks. Maybe speaking English was the only good thing about having been born in a city as terribly boring as South Bend.

Katia opened her backpack, took out her yearbook, and looked for the class photo. Amy clapped and shouted:

"You brought the little whore? You're gonna show him?"

Katia nodded. She flipped the pages eagerly, the tip of her tongue poking out between her lips. When she found the girl she was looking for, she opened the album wide and held the photo in front of the bear. Robin peered over the book to see. It was Susan, the weird girl from her biology class that the club bullied for fun.

"They call her Big Ass," said Katia. She pursed her lips a couple of times, the way she did whenever she was about to do some high-level mischief, which was what being a member of the club demanded. "I'm going to show you how to make some free money with her," Katia told the camera. "Robin, darling, could you hold the book while I show the gentleman his job?"

Robin went over and held the book, unsure. Amy looked on curiously; she didn't know Katia's plan either. Katia scrolled through her phone until she found a video, and then she held the screen up in front of the bear's

Margaret Atwood s Handmaid s Tale in how it speculates Schweblin unspools a disquieting portrait of the dark sides of connectivity and the kinds of animalistic cyborgs it can make of us, as we walk through barriers that even spirits cannot cross.   Literary Hub

This book gives us a harrowing glimpse of the near future in the age of voyeurism Schweblin unnervingly illustrates the dark side of technology and connectivity. Tor.com 

A nuanced exploration of anonymous connection and distant intimacy in our heavily accessible yet increasingly isolated lives...Capacious, touching, and disquieting, this is not-so-speculative fiction for an overnetworked and underconnected age. Kirkus Review 

Readers will be fascinated by the kentuki-human interactions, which smartly reveal how hungry we are for connection in a technology-bent world. Of a piece with Schweblin s elliptical Fever Dream and the disturbing story collection A Mouthful of Birds...this jittery eye-opener will appeal to a wide range of readers.   Library Journal 

Schweblin s portrait of humanity here isn t a pretty one, though many, no doubt, would call her a realist. Little Eyes makes for masterfully uneasy reading; it s a book that burrows under your skin. It s also made me want to stay away from Zoom for as long as possible. The Telegraph 

Daring and original...Schweblin deftly explores both the loneliness and casual cruelty that can inform our attempts to connect in this modern world. Booklist 

Schweblin unfurls an eerie, uncanny story Daring, bold, and devious. Publishers Weekly


Praise for Samanta Schweblin

Tales of somber humor, full of characters who slide into cracks or fall through holes into alternate realities. J. M. Coetzee

Strange and beautiful. Tommy Orange

Genius. Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker

A nauseous, eerie read, sickeningly good. Emma Cline

Schweblin is among the most acclaimed Spanish-language writers of her generation.... [H]er true ancestor could only be David Lynch; her tales are woven out of dread, doubles and confident loose ends.... What makes Schweblin so startling as a writer, however, what makes her rare and important, is that she is impelled not by mere talent or ambition but by vision, and that vision emerges from intense concern with the world, with the hidden cruelties in our relationships with all that is vulnerable children, rivers, language, one another. New York Times

Admirers of Schweblin's work will be delighted to learn that she hasn't lost any of the atmospheric creepiness that made Fever Dream such an unsettling ride.... Schweblin is a master of elegant and uncanny fiction.... Schweblin is gifted at treating the otherworldly with a matter-of-fact attitude, writing about the surreal as if it were unremarkable.... And her writing, beautifully translated by Megan McDowell, is consistently perfect; she can evoke more feelings in one sentence than many writers can in a whole story. Fans of literature that looks at the world from a skewed point of view will find much to love in Schweblin's book, and so will anyone who appreciates originality and bold risk-taking... A stunning achievement from a writer whose potential is beginning to seem limitless. NPR

This brilliant and disturbing book resembles Margaret Atwood s Handmaid s Tale in how it speculates. The parts you think are made up are actually true.... Schweblin unspools a disquieting portrait of the dark sides of connectivity and the kinds of animalistic cyborgs it can make of us, as we walk through barriers that even spirits cannot cross. John Freeman, LitHub