Las voces

This is a novel. A novel in which its protagonist, Caroline Rose, a budding writer recently converted to Catholicism, hears voices. Specifically, the voice and the clatter of the typewriter keys of the person writing this novel. She knows she's a character in the novel, and luckily, the novel is fascinating, hilarious, and profound. Although she will sometimes try to change it. Her companions in the story are amazing. For example, Laurence, her partner, has a charming and seemingly harmless grandmother. But she discovers that she and a gang of spies might be smuggling diamonds hidden inside loaves of bread. We'd all like to live in a Muriel Spark novel, where nothing is what it seems. Where everything appears to be funny and witty, but can turn out to be harsh and sinister. Muriel Spark, who also converted to Catholicism and suffered a nervous breakdown, wrote 22 ultra-personal and effervescent novels. A career that began, precisely, with this story.