Malena Escobar O'Reill and her novel in the parallel world of the peaceful but disturbing Punta Lara

Punta Lara –the novel and the place– It has the scent of childhood, of black and white memories, of hurried adolescence and adulthood in a state of permanent melancholy . It is a territory with a complex identity, close to the sea, but flanked by a river of extraordinary dimensions.

In this rural town lives Julia, the protagonist of a profound and moving novel called, precisely, Punta Lara , written by Malena Escobar O'Neill (published by Rama Negra). With subtle details and sensations dictated by nature, she paints a vast space that she manages to surround, giving it depth and strength. It is her town, a city, also deserted.

Punta Lara—the setting for the plot—is part of Ensenada , located 12 kilometers from La Plata and considered the "top beach in the Greater Buenos Aires" as it receives the waters of the Río de la Plata along its entire coast. It has a nature reserve and is a popular spot for fishing and water sports. It is a backdrop for a wide, serene landscape.

In the book, there is an incomplete photo album that haunts Julia and shows her that the path that leads her to lose her origins can end at any moment, that the surprises of a daring nature are there to warn her that there is no satisfaction, complete love, or balance that can be achieved forever.

She remembers the first time she went to this beach, taken by her father, her companion on routes, fishing, and in various waters. “My father used to say the river is forever.” But: “…What I like most about the river is its mystery,” she writes about that flow she knows so well, where she learns to differentiate what the rod brings: tarpon, boga, silverside, carp, dorado, catfish . There are also a mother and brother who appear, at times, out of focus, unclear.

At the beginning, there's a girl who lives in this town. Her family moves to La Plata, and finally, grown and determined, she resettles in Punta Lara, then blows up the bridges to the big city. She looks for land, a space, trying here and there, until she finds a place to build her house, next to the river. Now no one knows where she lives , so she dares to live a semi-wild life of solitude, until she is given the chance to connect with neighboring women and collect fish from the river to give them a home. She runs a cart where she sells ice cream, and thanks to this scrape, she can converse with her neighbors. She is alone and writes letters to her dead father. She always returns to the river, the one that is brown and shows a yearning for the sea, and she travels through towns . The rains are moments of celebration, reuniting with nature, and also moments that reveal absences. Physical ones, at least.

There is a parallel world in which she establishes her direct connection with nature: with earthworms and fish, dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, a hamster, worms, ants (admired), and endless birds . “I was always puzzled by migratory birds; they make me think of the contradiction: the forced change of habitat and the desire to stay in a place where they had managed to build something, as difficult and long as that can be,” she writes. She knows that leaving the river is something that will happen someday, inevitably, even though at times it seems impossible to leave Punta Lara.

As the book unfolds, the author decisively reveals what her character sees and feels, merging with her to express what permeates her and makes her a unique being in this environment where the idea of ​​humanity ebbs and flows. Punta Lara, the place, generates both charm and anguish; it is a chosen place and also a place of suffering. Malena's accurate insights immediately transport us to this somewhat predictable, somewhat enigmatic resort. Her emotions and her sensoriality, carried on her skin , rest there: thus, she brings to paper and tells us, like a traveler familiar with the journey, what Julia sees and experiences. Everything seems unfinished and begins again.

Punta Lara is the second book by Malena Escoba O'Neill (born in 1998). She had previously published La clave secreta , has a degree in Social Communication from the National University of La Plata and a master's degree in Creative Writing from Untref .