Katherine Mansfield was able to portray what is hidden beneath the surface better than anybody else. Her deep understanding of the motivations of the women of her era helped her to create perfectly three-dimensional female characters. And so she combined the beautiful with the fearsome, the sordid with the sublime, subtly writing the delicate contradictions that comprise the multiple dimensions of a life. El alma moderna y otros cuentos (‘The Modern Soul and Other Stories’) brings together some of the stories that best reflect the volcanic emotions that underpin the lives of her protagonists; feelings that shake and erupt into their daily lives, perpetually on the brink of the abyss. Sara Morante, a well-known illustrator of works by classic authors like Jane Eyre, Emily Brontë and Sylvia Plath, is the perfect interpreter for Mansfield’s literary imagery.