The hotel life

Montes, Javier

Featured in Granta’s The Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists issue in 2010, Javier Montes blends literary narrative and compelling intrigue to great effect in this novel.
A journalist employed to review hotels for a newspaper finds himself unexpectedly playing the voyeur. One day during a check-in, he is given the wrong key and, on entering the room, still unseen by its occupants, he finds himself spying on a porn shoot. Later on that night, the film director—an elegant, enigmatic woman—tells him about the website she runs and its hallmark: hotel scenes.
The kinship and attraction he feels toward her nourishes his urge for a new encounter. Following the clues on her site about upcoming scouting sessions, he pursues her through their mirrored hotel-driven lives from one possible shooting location to another. As he continues his unending quest, his daily escapades merge with nostalgic dispatches and a yearning for an unattainable object of desire.