Some authors manage to create living pieces of art that engulf your soul and abduct your mind. A lot of the authors who are promoted today on places like social media and even in book shops often fall into specific genres deemed profitable or trendy, thus leaving little room for authors who seek to break outside of those restrictions. Ironically, the author I want to make a spectacle of is one who for the most part remains faceless with little information available about him personally. I would argue that in some ways, this fact makes me want to write about him more.
Reading Rafael Nicolás’s debut novel was one of the most visceral reading experiences I can remember. It is not often that you stumble upon a queer retelling of the Fall of Lucifer and yet this was wholly original and moved me to sobs on numerous occasions. All of my latent apprehension melted away about 20 pages into the book because I realised how thoughtfully crafted the novel was. Nicolás writes as though he has been perfecting his story for years, you can feel the hours of research embedded into each page.
It may be of importance to mention that this author chooses not to share his own religion, and yet he is able to explore the sensitive subject matter in a way that allows the reader to reflect upon their own feelings and relationship with divinity. I found within this book a lot of my own unspoken emotions and feelings, and even to those with no kind of relationship towards God or religion, on a simpler level, his books truly examine what it means to be human.
Rafael Nicolás has currently published two of his own novels, the first two in his angel trilogy, with his first novel initially being self-published. He is one of the first authors who I have come across who has personally made his own work available for free, as such embodying the core belief that literature should remain accessible.
“Red Angel” by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.