Like a Fading Shadow
{{Short description|2014 novel by Antonio Muñoz Molina}}
{{italic title}}
Like a Fading Shadow ({{langx|es|Como la sombra que se va}}) is a novel by Spanish writer Antonio Muñoz Molina, published in 2014.{{cite news |last1=Coca |first1=César |title=Antonio Muñoz Molina: «Si para ser un grande hay que carecer de escrúpulos, no estoy interesado» |url=https://www.diariosur.es/culturas/libros/201411/30/antonio-munoz-molina-para-20141201100343-v.html |access-date=7 June 2023 |work=Diario Sur |date=11 December 2014 |language=es}} The English translation by Camilo A. Ramirez was shortlisted for the 2018 International Booker Prize.
Plot
The novel has three plotlines: first, it recounts the last days of MLK's assassin, James Earl Ray, in Lisbon; secondly, it recounts Muñoz Molina's life in Lisbon in 1987, and finally, Muñoz Molina reflects on his life in 2014.{{cite news|date=22 November 2014|editor=J. Ernesto Ayala, El País|title=Crónica y expiación|newspaper=El País |url=http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2014/11/19/babelia/1416414590_282643.html}}{{cite web|date=27 November 2014|editor=Inés Martín Rodrigo, Diario ABC|title=Antonio Muñoz Molina: «La imaginación, si la dejas sola, sólo inventa estereotipos»|url=http://www.abc.es/cultura/libros/20141127/abci-munioz-molina-luther-king-201411261817.html}}{{cite web|date=November 2014|editor=Guillermo Rodríguez, El Huffington Post|title='Como la sombra que se va': Muñoz Molina se abre en canal|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.es/2015/01/12/como-la-sombra-que-se-va_n_6456288.html}}
Reception
Bécquer Seguín of Slate praised the chapters dedicated to Ray, but criticized the chapters dedicated to the author's life in Lisbon, commenting "Only the most dedicated Muñoz Molina scholar might find something of value in chapter-length collages of writerly anxieties, boilerplate theories of the novel, and overdramatized memories of an overripe affair."{{cite web |last1=Seguín |first1=Bécquer |title=Exotic Minutiae |url=https://slate.com/culture/2017/07/like-a-fading-shadow-reviewed.html |website=Slate |access-date=22 March 2025 |date=21 July 2017}}
The English translation by Camilo A. Ramirez was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2018 and longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award in 2019.{{cite web |title=Like a Fading Shadow {{!}} The Booker Prizes |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/like-a-fading-shadow |website=thebookerprizes.com |access-date=22 March 2025 |language=en |date=31 May 2018}}{{cite web |title=Like a Fading Shadow |url=https://dublinliteraryaward.ie/the-library/books/like-a-fading-shadow/ |website=Dublin Literary Award |access-date=22 March 2025 |date=3 September 2019}}