From The Death of Jesus, which will be published this month by Viking. The book tells the story of Simón and Inés, the legal guardians of a young boy, David, who suffers from an unknown illness that has left him bedridden in a hospital in the fictional city of Estrella.

The drugs David is given with his evening meal, meant to suppress the seizures, send him into a deep sleep. In the dead hours of the night he will sometimes wake and give a drowsy smile.

Now and again there is a lucid interval in which they can talk.

…