I have just finished reading one of the books I bought in Spain. A gay novel called “Amore”, by Pablo Wessling, written in Spanish for Spanish speakers. Chapter by chapter I had no sense of context (like I did reading El Hobbit) and have had to work things out.

I enjoyed it. There were times when meaning slid into my brain as smoothly as a well lubed … let’s not finish that sentence!

It was a fun book – I thoroughly enjoyed the story, although there weren’t many surprises once the initial premise was set.

There was a moment, when the protagonist (Amore), who has a strong connection with a straight friend releases:

De repente me sentí como el típico amigo hetero que te dice: «Siempre quise tener in amigo maricón».

Suddenly I felt like the typical straight friend that says “I always wanted a faggot friend”.

Page 71 – I translated “maricón” as “faggot” because I wanted to preserve the deliberately blunt, potentially affectionate-but-loaded tone of the original.

As his crush on his only straight male friend develops.

While reading this book I encountered apparently conversational Spanish as might be spoken amongst a group of twenty-something best friends. Needless to say, the language was colourful. I don’t think Duolingo would approve!

• joder = fuck
• follar = fuck
• rollo de noche = one night stand
• joderlo = screw it up
• empalmarse = erection

… and any number of combinations of puta and mierda! Which Google would translate into things almost as anemic as “poor” and “darn”.

I found that I cared what happened to Amore and hoped that he would find love by the end of the book. I guess it says something about both the author and my perseverance that I felt drawn through the story all the way to final sentence.