Federico Ivanier’s Never Tell Anyone Your Name is a concise yet meandering tale of youth and death, love and horror, hunger and satiation – a story of juxtapositions. Within the first few pages you realise that you will be taking centre stage within the plot, as the story, very cleverly, makes use of the second-person point of view. All of the main character’s emotions become your own, and as the reader you get the unusual opportunity of living the mysterious and dark actions of our 16-year-old male protagonist.
You have the freedom to draw your own conclusions from the tale. Although, this sense of ambiguity may not suit everyone. If plots with a clear and obvious resolution are something you’re after, perhaps this one isn’t for you.
At eighty eight pages long, the plot of this novella manages to keep you guessing throughout. There is no doubt that the beautiful and in-depth descriptions, which create a vivid Spanish landscape for us to journey through, envelop the mysterious plot. You can’t help but wonder what the story would be like in its original language; with the depth of description that is given to us in English, it feels as if nothing could have been lost in this translation.
As the first Young Adult novel translated from Uruguay into English, we have been deprived of Ivanier’s writing until now.
Lorna O’Dea
Never Tell Anyone Your Name
Federico Ivanier
Translated by Claire Storey
Hope Road, 2023
Paperback £8.99
ISBN 9781913109226
