El Cielo Caído
Leticia Martín Hernández
Ediciones Emehache (2020)
Mystery

Set during the onset of the Spanish Civil War on the island of La Palma, El Cielo Caído follows the story of Marcelina, a spiritual healer whose neighbors believe practises witchcraft. When Marcelina's husband is brutally killed while hunting, suspicion falls on her and monsters emerge: her neighbors, the soldiers who terrorise her village and the wild beast that seems to roam the countryside. Her only ally is an enigmatic police officer, but perhaps nothing and no one can save her, especially when the monster is much closer than she thinks.

The author’s initial brief for the cover design made reference to the film Pan's Labyrinth to describe the story's tone of voice and theme of magical realism. Among all the elements with visual potential provided by the author, the most iconic was a pair of cross-shaped scissors used in the Canary Islands as an amulet to ward off evil spirits. Taking inspiration from Man Ray's photograms from the 1930s, our cover cooks added tree branches sprouting out of the scissor handles to allude to the pine forest in which the mysterious creature dwells and give an uncanny resemblance to an inhuman face.

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