Only One Thing Missing

3.4/5 ( ratings)

Winner of the prestigious International Prize, Luis Manuel Ruiz’s Only One Thing Missing is a heart-stopping thriller that takes us through the labyrinthine streets of contemporary Seville, the desolate walkways of an unmapped urban dreamscape, and to the devil-worshiping underworld of medieval Lisbon.

The novel centers on Alicia, a young woman who has recently lost her husband and only child in a tragic accident. Mourning her family, Alicia is fortunate to be surrounded by friends and neighbors whose hands are always outstretched to offer solace and comfort. But soon she becomes plagued by a succession of nightmares set in a surreal, unidentifiable city. When the statues and shadowy figures from the dream-city begin to appear in her waking life, she finds herself teetering between sanity and paranoia. Together with her brother-in-law, Esteban—who happens to be madly in love with her—Alicia gradually comes to understand that she may be the subject of an evil conspiracy that has dark, ancient roots. As the two of them fall deeper into this phantasmagoric world, they come to see that the people all around them may not be as well-meaning as they appear, and that trust—once such an abundant commodity—may have become an unaffordable luxury.

Deftly crafted and rife with literary allusions, Only One Thing Missing is an enthralling thriller that is at once a love story, a chilling tale of the occult, and an exploration of the timeless themes of memory, obsession, and loss.