Louis Ducoudray
Louis Ducoudray is the author of the short story collection El agua secreto, for which he won the Premio Nacional Aquileo J. Echeverría in 1976. The author is also one of the founders of modern architecture in Costa Rica.
His story “Here” is a strange, Orwellian-like science fiction in which “the wings”–“two wings joined together without a trunk, without eyes or a head, without feet and without a tail”–do not sleep. The wings “spend the night moving in a nervous flutter that scares the mosquitoes,” creating a whirlwind and a constant storm of dust that causes all of the people to sleep face down so the dust does not enter their noses and mouths as they sleep. Along with the wingbeats of these strange creatures, the reader gets a sense of how the people are treated by the Company that commands them and how they spend their time, living day after day in lives that are far beyond their control.
Ducoudray’s story is translated by Barbara Ras, the editor of Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion. In addition to her work as translator and editor, Ras is also a prize-winning poet, and her collections of poetry include Bite Every Sorrow and One Hidden Stuff.
Photo Credit: Deviant Art / CC BY-SA 3.0
Source: Ras, Barbara, ed. Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion. San Francisco: Whereabouts, 1994.
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