José Ovejero

A family—father, mother, and son—has just arrived for vacation in a seaside town. They've rented their dream home and car. As they cruise slowly down the town's main street in their red convertible Mercedes, moving through a summer-clad crowd squeezed between two rows of market stalls, the boy steals a straw hat from a homeless man.

The boy and his parents pay little mind to this spontaneous, almost innocent gesture. Yet it is this very trifle that, step by step, sets off events that charge the atmosphere with tension. Or perhaps it merely exposes a threat that was already lurking: within the conflicts brewing beneath the surface of the family's seemingly peaceful life, in the boy's mounting unease, and in the obsession that drives the vagrant to break into the newcomers' holiday home.

In Bajo la luna negra, everything unfolds beyond the point of no return, leaving us unable to explain why the characters' seemingly most inconsequential choices relentlessly push them toward a tragedy that is, all at once, catastrophe and salvation.

"A moral fable. The character’s wickedness works well in this story, which seeks to alleviate the reader’s indignation through poetic justice. [...] The cruelty instilled in Antón takes the reader by surprise, unsettles them, turns them against him (unless they themselves have some moral flaw) and, once this has been achieved, propels the reader into the unpredictable so that they may see themselves reflected there." El País

"And the verb became a novel. *Under the Black Moon* captivates us with its immediacy [...]. The events unfold, driven by the verb, the true driving force of the narrative. [...] There is a particular delight in the meticulous attention to detail and the recurring motifs, which gradually begin to make sense." La Vanguardia

"José Ovejero delivers one of his best novels in Bajo la luna negra, a fierce exploration of the human condition and contemporary vulnerabilities, grounded in fiction as a tool for observation." Diario de Sevilla

"José Ovejero’s narrative power in revealing both the surface and the depth at once is extraordinary. […] The main draw of the novel, more than its crime plot, lies in its narrative quality. In truth, there are no good guys or bad guys. No judgments are made. It simply tells a story that, if you like, can be read as a fable of our time—where discontent exists just as much within social prosperity as it does on its margins." El Imparcial