Unanimously rated as “an incredible literary discovery” by the jury for the Andalusian Youth Prize.
(Boxing on Ice) In the late 60s, Loco Larretxi is working the Boxing World Championship and lives with Margot Gris in this story of violent love and mystery; with her, Larretxi will attend the birth of the Psychonaut Manifesto, experiment with absinthe, defeat half the world, travel through it, fight against his own fears… Their relationship takes place in the years of psychedelia, mental illness, drugs, silence… The story of their lives is intertwined with that of Thor Heredahl, who tries to cross the Pacific in a pre-Colombian raft; with Milmam Parry, who searches in Yugoslavia for a Homer of our time; with Harold H. Hardiner, the climber of skyscrapers in North America who was known as the Human Fly; with Roald Amundsen, the conqueror of the geographic South Pole… And all these stories will lead to a chase through Europe on the trail of the couple, in a ghostly tour through some of the old world cities that make the book a surprising “anti-travel guide” told from the very particular point of view of one of the characters. Written in a style achingly modern.”
Chandler has written in Playback: “If it was not hard, it could not live. If it was not tender, it would not deserve to be.” The fragility of ice and the violence of boxing are the axes on which revolves this ironic, delirious, and radical novel.
“Boxing on Ice is an enthralling, startling book, written in a refined, taut prose style that packs a punch, with the crystal-clear transparency we have come to associate with post-postmodern literature (…) An author blessed with a flair for language and perfect pacing.” Andrés Ibáñez, ABC Cultural
«Cuenca Sandoval narrates with an ease, precision and provocative power that can intimidate.» Roberto Valencia, Quimera