On the Edge

Published in The Oberon Anthology of Contemporary Spanish Plays, shortisted for the 2019 Valle Inclán Award for literary translation, out now.

Out of sight and out of mind, across the Mediterranean, a Spanish enclave marks Europe’s only land fronteer with Africa.  When the wayward Ahmed returns after a spell of self-imposed exile, the news travels fast.  The lover he abandoned, the businessman whose career he ruined, and the ex-girlfriend whose marriage is on the rocks are all at once seduced and repelled.  An act of petty theft is the final straw, prompting a chain reaction that unleashes the worst instincts of this seething outpost, cramped between the water to the north and the fiercely guarded border to the south.  Prejudice, crime, corruption and violence are quick to emerge in this little-known yet emblematic bordertown, neglected by Madrid and forgotten by Brussels.

Other people scheming to snatch away what little there is here! Trade! With them! Trade with the Moor, like always, like it’s always been! And when the night falls, each man to his kingdom. Us over here, them over there. There and here.     

This translation of On the Edge was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture, Education and Sport.

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