La lengua y otros dialectos is a new collection of short stories by Luis Saldaña, a maritime lawyer with a degree in creative writing who, despite being a relative newcomer in the Puerto Rican literary scene, has already won a fair share of prizes for his short stories in the last few years. The book, launched on February 27 at the Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Bar Association), was presented by writer and journalist Mayra Montero and artist Antonio Martorell, leading figures on the island´s cultural stage and beyond.

About La lengua, Mayra Montero observes: “the difficult art of the short story is enriched by this brilliant collection of stories with no time to lose: they go straight to the point and shake us as if we were sensing the worst. It is as if behind every story were uncoiling the seed of a small catastrophe. With serenity and without much ado, Luis Saldaña conveys a disquiet, a perplexity very close to fear. This means that these stories accomplish their goal very well.” Varied in tone, thematic structure, points of view, and settings, the twenty stories that comprise the volume are written with cool simplicity, devoid of “unnecessary adornments and clichés” and characterized by nimble plots and startling twists.  Readers are left with “the sensation of having observed the complexity of the human condition through a kaleidoscope.”  Interviewed by Tania Pérez Rivera, Saldaña says about his creative process: “The stories are borne out of a comment one overhears, an image glimpsed, a memory. There is something indescribable that I feel, that says to me ‘There is a story.'”

Presently, the author is awaiting the publication of his first novel, Silencio en el convento [Silence in the Convent].

For article by Tania Pérez Rivera, see full text in Spanish at http://www.elnuevodia.com/XStatic/endi/template/content.aspx?se=nota&id=538385

For press release by Terranova Editores see full text in Spanish at http://terranovaeditores.com/inicio/prensa/51-prensa/69-la-lengua-y-otros-dialectos-primera-coleccion-de-cuentos-del-escritor-luis-saldana.html