Only a Little While Here

By Maria Ospina

Winner of the Sor Juana In s de la Cruz Prize - Winner of Colombia's National Novel Award

This prizewinning novel interweaves four animal odysseys in a gripping, adventurous meditation on migration and displacement in the inextricable human and natural worlds.

In Only a Little While Here, award-winning author Mar a Ospina evokes the gratification to be found through close, humble observation of nature. With characteristic precision and intensity, Ospina trains our attention on the lives of five creatures: a migratory songbird dazzled by city lights, an orphaned porcupine saved by kindness, two dogs grieving the loss of their human companions, and a determined beetle transported to a vast, unimaginable world. The surprising drama of their lives reveals the fragility and power of belonging, and what it means to create--or lose--a home. Along the way, our narrator models the attentiveness needed to mend the rift between humans and non-human creatures and celebrates animals' often-overlooked status as witnesses of our shared world.

Alive with eagle-eyed curiosity, Only a Little While Here is ecological fiction at its most soul stirring.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1668097087
• ISBN13: 9781668097083
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"