Book Review for Blog Tour: The Bitch by Pilar Quintana

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Today marks the beginning of the blog tour for The Bitch by Pilar Quintana, translated from Spanish by Lisa Dillman and published by World Editions; I am pleased to be kicking it off with my review! The novel itself has won the prestigious Colombian Biblioteca de Narrativa Prize and was selected to receive financial assistance from English PEN’s Writers in Translation programme to promote free speech and intercultural understanding. 

Author Pilar Quintana

Damaris and her fisherman husband Rogelio live in a jungle bluff which overlooks Colombia’s Pacific coast. Their relationship has been a struggle for many years with them keeping a distance from each other, sleeping in separate beds, and not talking. This was mainly caused by Damaris being unable to fall pregnant and wanting a child very badly. One day, Damaris decides to adopt a new-born pup; it is hers and not her husbands who has his own three dogs that he seems to treat cruelly. From here, her life changes, and readers follow her through the events that transpire, including her emotions and responses. It’s not the usual heart-warming dog-and-owner tale you would expect, but an important one nevertheless, and filled with harsh realities that need to be told.  

This book was very hard-hitting for me, especially as a dog lover, but this effect was utilised for an important purpose; to tell a story true to life itself and the harsh realities of it. Pain and hardships cannot be magically fixed or repressed just by having an animal to love. Instead, her pup brings Damaris’ issues to the forefront, forcing her to constantly be faced with them and in turn creating Damaris’ eventual joy of having her own pet to look after into bitterness, as her pup grows and develops her own behaviours. I yearned for the pet to bring happiness to both the lives of Damaris and Rogelio and perhaps this was because of the usual expectation for dogs to bring this. Instead, what I was met back with is reality, not the fairy-tale story I thought I had wanted. The language itself is simplistic with a lack of aesthetic that actually wasn’t needed due to the strong effects the events that transpired in the book had on me as a reader. All of this is fitted into the relatively short length of around 146 pages, making the novel fast-paced and keeping you constantly on your toes with each new development unfolding page after page.

If you are wanting a book that teaches you a lesson, and in the process of this, utilises realistic details, such as to reveal circumstances of poverty, then this book is perfect for you. It left me with the note of how building resentment and repressing past memories, all eventually lead to pain, anger and loss. It also re-iterated how your views can suddenly change when you actually experience what you had the views of in the first place. I would like to add a note of caution that there were some uncomfortable moments, specifically with dogs and abuse, but that these were used for the overall purpose.

A huge thank you to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours and World Editions for providing me with a copy in return for my honest review and for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour!