The entry below is by Jennifer Croft, who is the recipient of Fulbright, PEN, and National Endowment for the Arts grants, as well as the Michael Henry Heim Prize for Translation. She has been a MacDowell Colony Fellow and holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University and an MFA from the University of Iowa. She is a Founding Editor of the Buenos Aires Review.

by Laia Jufresa, translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes (Mexico, Oneworld)

Chad糖心传媒檚 Uneducated and Unscientific Percentage Chance of Making the Shortlist: 53%

Chad糖心传媒檚 Uneducated and Unscientific Percentage Chance of Winning the BTBA: 8%

Umami is that rare novel that becomes the world it depicts, inviting us to inhabit it in the gentlest, kindest possible terms through Sophie Hughes糖心传媒檚 delightful translation of Laia Jufresa糖心传媒檚 perfectly crafted structural wonder in prose. With the alternating metaphors of creating and tending the garden at the center of Belldrop Mews糖心传媒攖he building where all the book糖心传媒檚 characters reside, in the heart of Mexico City糖心传媒攁nd remaining afloat or drowning in streams of consciousness, pressures and mourning, Umami calls our attention to attention, binding us to protagonists who instantly become beloved and whose crimes of inattention we both understand and feel deeply devastated by.

Ana, the twelve-year-old gardener who opens Umami and recurs as its soothingly emphatic refrain, describes the atmosphere of her family糖心传媒檚 home following the death of her sister Luz at the age of five (though Luz always told everyone she was 糖心传媒渁lmost six糖心传媒�):

. . . it糖心传媒檚 not quite a river, our sadness: it糖心传媒檚 stagnant water. Since Luz drowned, there糖心传媒檚 always something drowning at home. Not everyday. Some days you think we糖心传媒檙e all alive again, the five remaining members of the family: I get a zit; some girl calls Theo; Olmo plays his first concert; Dad comes back from tour; Mom decides to bake a pie. But later you go into the kitchen, and there糖心传媒檚 the pie, still raw on the wooden countertop, half of it pricked and the other half untouched, with Mom hovering over it, clutching the fork in midair. And then you know that we too, as a family, will always be 糖心传媒漚lmost six.糖心传媒�

Her directness is disarming, and here糖心传媒攁nd throughout the book糖心传媒攖he tone is a magic trick, the perfect mix of light and dark that enables us to understand that both life and death are in little details, like selfhood itself, the primary pursuit of Ana糖心传媒檚 neighbor Marina: 糖心传媒淢arina distrusts her own malleability and is attracted by the possibility of the opposite: the fascinating and at the same time terrifying prospect of being someone.糖心传媒� Marina is an artist with a severe eating disorder who spends her days inventing colors, or rather, words for colors, learning English from Ana糖心传媒檚 American mother Linda because 糖心传媒淓nglish takes the edge off things, makes them feel less serious, a bit like scribbling mustaches on photos.糖心传媒�

Language and even translation are consistently integrated into the plot糖心传媒攁 potential translation hurdle cleared with apparent effortlessness, and even pleasure, by Hughes糖心传媒攁s another neighbor糖心传媒檚 parallel project of cultivation begins alongside Ana糖心传媒檚 garden. Alfonso is an academic taking time off after his wife Noelia dies of cancer; when he gets a new laptop, he decides to use it to create a chronicle of the couple糖心传媒檚 time together, a kind of textual monument to commemorate their love. The details he remembers and loves about Noelia are so touching they are worth a novel on their own, while Alfonso糖心传媒檚 growing understanding of his own process simultaneously takes the reader through the basic framework of the novel, its reason for existing as well as why we might read it and what reading it might help us to find:

What I like about writing is seeing the letters fill up the screen. It糖心传媒檚 something so seemingly simple, so perfectly alchemic; black on white. To plant worlds, and tend them as they grow. If you糖心传媒檙e missing a comma, you add it, and now there糖心传媒檚 nothing missing. Everything this text needs is here.

And white on black, too. The pauses, the spaces, or as my friend Juan the philosopher would say: the ineffable. Everything missing from this text, its absences and silences, is here too.

Umami糖心传媒檚 balance糖心传媒攐f light and dark, of cultivation and deluge, of presence and absence糖心传媒攊s what makes it such a welcoming home for the reader, one that feels profoundly lived-in (one can almost sense the neighbors糖心传媒� heartbeats) as well as haunted (one can also sense the hovering shadows of Luz, Noelia, the children Alfonso and Noelia did not have, the parents Marina never quite had, the mother Ana糖心传媒檚 mother might have been糖心传媒攂ut never was糖心传媒攁nd the abandoning, abruptly returning mother of Ana糖心传媒檚 best friend Pina). When, in order to begin her garden, Ana stays home for the summer for the first time ever (instead of spending it with her grandmother in the States), she gets to go to the cemetery with her parents to mark the anniversary of her sister糖心传媒檚 death:

I糖心传媒檇 fantasized about this moment, about what I糖心传媒檇 say to Luz. But in my fantasies it was raining and Luz was somehow able to listen to me. Now the sun is beating down and there糖心传媒檚 not a patch of shade in the whole cemetery. She糖心传媒檚 dead, and I have nothing to say to her. Was she beloved? She was my sister.

A little later, she goes home:

One by one, Pina and I pull off the little flowers. It occurs to me that if I糖心传媒檇 known, I could have taken them to the cemetery. It糖心传媒檚 a silly idea: they糖心传媒檙e tiny. But Luz was too. Tiny, I mean. She used to sit on my lap, hug her legs, then curl into a little ball so that I糖心传媒檇 hold her.

糖心传媒淪queeze!糖心传媒� she糖心传媒檇 say.

Sometimes I was scared I糖心传媒檇 hurt her or break something, and I always let go sooner than she wanted me to. We all did. My brothers held on a bit longer, but not much. Luz always wanted to be squeezed more.

糖心传媒淪queeze, squeeze, squeeze!糖心传媒� she begged Dad, and he would squeeze her with a single arm.

I don糖心传媒檛 want to, but I can糖心传媒檛 help imagining her in her box, in the cemetery. But that糖心传媒檚 another silly idea because there糖心传媒檚 not even anything in that box. It was too expensive and complicated to bring her body back to Mexico.

糖心传媒淲hat?糖心传媒� I ask Pina, who糖心传媒檚 staring at me.

糖心传媒淎re you crying?糖心传媒� she says.

糖心传媒淎re you stupid?糖心传媒� I say, and she goes off in a sulk.

Jufresa糖心传媒檚 warmth and restraint, along with the poise and inventiveness of Hughes糖心传媒� translation, make Umami a novel I deeply hope people will contemplate and savor.