Andrs Barba begins his new novel, A Luminous Republic, with a frightening sentence that takes a bizarre turn halfwayand maintains that sense of horror and strangeness throughout each subsequent page. He writes: When Im asked about the thirty-two children who lost their lives in San Cristbal, my response varies depending on the age of my interlocutor. The rest of the slim volume gradually unravels the mysteries embedded in that bravura opening: Who are these children? Why are they dead? And, finally, whats going on with this oddly detached narrator?

The people of San Cristbal view these thirty-two children, who seem to have appeared out of nowhere, as major antagonists. The kids provoke chaos and violence in the streets and at a grocery story. Yet theyre all aged between nine and thirteenhardly the demographic for most literary villains (although, to be fair, the book is garnering comparisons to Lord of the Flies, the iconic novel about adolescent cruelty). As he subtly crafts these characters, and the towns response to them, Barba develops his great theme: the tragic pitfalls that can result from fearing outsiders.

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The narrator himself is initially an outsider, who takes a managerial post in San Cristbals Department of Social Affairs after moving from the nearby town of Estep. A few years after he arrives, the trouble with the children begins, and hes partially responsible for wrangling them into good behavior. The unnamed social worker narrates the story retrospectivelyits been 20 years since he moved to San Cristbal. Now, hes an insider with an intimate connection to the bizarre history he relates.

The Department of Social Affairs first discusses the children after they have, allegedly, stolen and harrassed three different characters in San Cristbal. The government decides to take action too late: Its clear they should have intervened when they first saw homeless adolescents, not after the group resorted to crime.

While the deputy blames the narrator for the recent turmoil, the narrator believes this is simply political maneuvering. He calls the deputys allegations a veritable master class in populist dialectics: call attention to an already out-of-control situation, offer an unattainable solution, and accuse the political adversary of being responsible for it all. The children become pawns in a larger political game among adults.

Throughout the novel, the people of San Cristbal project their own desires and anxieties onto the children. Their complaints simply offer insight into their own psychologies, not those of their youthful foes, who ultimately remain mysterious. The reader never hears from the children directly. Even the narrator must piece together their story using news reports and retrospective documentation.

Barba, a lauded Spanish writer who won his countrys Premio Herralde for A Luminous Republic, isnt faulting his characters for fearing the children. Its natural to be afraid of the Other; its one of our most elemental instincts of survivalFear, like pain, protects us; its necessary, he recently told Observer. If we question and analyze this fear, it can dissipate. If we dont, cautioned Barba, we can promote an ethos of hate, and allow political figures to manipulate us.

The children demonstrate two key behaviors that lead the adults to fear them as Other: They speak a language that adults cant understand, and they operate without a leader. This lack of hierarchy disturbs San Cristbals society, which is more comfortable with competition, politicizing and capitalism. To be without a leader is the ultimate divergence from life as we know it, explained Barba. As he attempted to construct a human community completely alien to our own, the writer copied the structure of certain insect communities in which individuals have different functions, but no ranking system. The book frequently describes the children as insect-likemore of a compliment, perhaps, than it initially seems.

Barba believes that capitalism has prejudiced us against the idea of an anarchist utopia, yet he creates significant beauty in the childrens lawless, alternate society (which the reader finally glimpses close-up at the end of the novel). Its ultimately difficult to tell who operates better, the grown-ups or the children. While the narrator focuses on the violence perpetrated by the latter group, he also makes offhand remarks about kidnappings and other crimes that occur in the adults society. Perhaps the children got something right, and thats why the narrator has become so intrigued by their story.

If its ambiguous whether the narrator himself understands his obsession with the children, Barba is clear about his own intentions. He described violence as a static energy that results when a charge builds up in a society and seeks an outlet. A chain reaction can result. In my novel, the violence is sparked by children who tap into a deep-seated discomfort within the rest of society, said Barba.

Connecting his writing to real-world concerns, Barba noted that hes surprised there hasnt been more violence in the wake of the pandemic. Speaking with the eerie, fantastical tone that he perfects throughout A Luminous Republic, he offered a bleak prediction. Perhaps the energy building up now will be let loose in the future; some small event will trigger it. Violence is always there; its the ultimate agent of social destabilization, he said. Thatll depend, of course, on how we treat others around usparticular those who are vulnerable, and different from ourselves.

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Andrs Barba Crafts a Disquieting Tale of Kids Taking Over in A Luminous Republic - Observer