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Resguardo

Coming Oct 30

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Not sure of the level? Read the first chapters free.

La Banda, Level A1

Resguardo

A Mexican Spanish Novel for Beginning Learners

Product Details

Language
Spanish (LA)
Reading Level
A1Mid A1 — Beginner
Print Length
195 pages Reading time is roughly equivalent to 182 pages of English reading. Different retailers may estimate print length differently.
Reading Time
2h 55m
Publication Date
October 2026

Summary

Yerin's first morning in the airport's lost-property room ends with three new entries in the register. A blue sweater, large, a little dirty. A black phone with a dead battery and a small photo of a child on the back. And a box: plain, closed, heavy for its size, with nothing inside but paper. For that one she writes a single word: Papeles.

She has been in the country four months and still asks people to say things again, more slowly. The room runs on one rule she can't argue with: anything unclaimed by the last day of the month leaves in a single lot, and nobody sees it again. Somebody, somewhere, is missing that box. Can Yerin find them before the month runs out?

Written for A1 readers (CEFR) and up. If you know the everyday core of Spanish and can follow the present tense, you can read this, because the whole novel stays there. It is original fiction set in Mexico, composed at this level from its first page, and much of it is told through documents: the register itself, a shift roster with no name in her slot, a school invitation from 2000. Each chapter closes with a page of Yerin's diary, a short language note, a glossary in Spanish and English, and a few questions to think about.

La Banda is four novels set in one airport, each following a different person through the same building and each complete on its own. Across the four, the Spanish climbs from A1 to A2.

Formatted Content in This Book

Told partly through in-story documents and messages — not just narration.

  • 15× Diary pages in this book Diary pages A dated page from Yerin's diary after every chapter, written the same day in the same Spanish as the chapter.
  • 6× Institutional Registries in this book Institutional Registries A shared institutional record — the kind of list two organizations both sign off on.
  • 2× Official Documents in this book Official Documents A government or institutional document, right down to the letterhead.
  • 2× WhatsApp Conversations in this book WhatsApp Conversations Eavesdrop on a private thread, exactly as the characters typed it.
  • 1× Legal Document in this book Legal Document A legal filing that turns out to matter a lot more than it looks.

Omorphos Publishing Author

Website

How these books work

Every book in the catalog is built the same way. This is what that means.

  • You read the documents, not a summary of them

    The documents sit inside the story, and you read them yourself before anyone tells you what they mean. Here is the register from Yerin’s first morning. The sweater has two lines under one number: her two words, and beneath them Don Rubén’s long one. The last line is the box, and it has one word.

    A page from the lost-property register on Yerin's first day. The sweater has two lines under one number: two words, then a long description. The last line, the box, says only «Papeles».
  • You get what she gets, when she gets it

    Chapter one is prose, a page of the room’s register, and a page of Yerin’s diary, written that night in the Spanish she has so far. The diary is hers and it is also yours. It is written in the same small Spanish as the chapter around it, because she is learning it at the same speed you are.

  • The level on the cover is the level inside

    If you know the everyday core of Spanish and can follow a sentence in the present tense, this book was written for you. It stays at that level from the first page to the last, and every chapter was proofread against A1 before it shipped.

You can read it before you buy it

The opening of the book is the sample, with the notes and the glossary exactly as they appear inside. It is the surest way to find out whether the level fits, because it is the book and not a description of the book.

Get the sample

Frequently Asked Questions

If I use a different regional variant of the language, will I still get value from this content?

Yes, and the differences are worth having. Each series is written in one specific regional variety — Brazilian Portuguese, Latin American Spanish — because that’s how the language is actually spoken somewhere, by someone. You’ll meet vocabulary and expressions that belong to that place.

If you’re learning a different variety, you’ll understand nearly all of it, and you’ll notice the differences. That noticing is part of reading well in a second language rather than an obstacle to it.

I’m in a country where the book doesn’t appear to be available on my local Amazon.

For Spanish and Portuguese titles: our books are currently available through Amazon only, so if your local Amazon store isn’t showing a title, try a different regional Amazon store — availability can vary by market and by title.

For Korean titles: they aren’t on Amazon at all — look for them on Google Play Books or Apple Books instead. The book page always shows exactly where a given title is available.

If you’re still stuck, use the contact form and tell us which store, region, and title. We’re tracking where readers are running into this, and it directly informs which markets and platforms we open up next.

What formats are available?

Ebook. Spanish and Portuguese titles are in Kindle format on Amazon; some are also enrolled in Kindle Unlimited — the book page always shows whether a specific title is included, and if it is, KU subscribers can read it at no additional cost.

Korean titles are ebooks too, but through Google Play Books and Apple Books rather than Kindle, since Amazon’s Kindle store doesn’t support Korean-language publishing and Kindle Unlimited the way it does for our other languages.

You don’t need a Kindle device for the Amazon titles — the free Kindle app works on phones, tablets, and computers, and there’s a browser reader as well. Google Play Books and Apple Books each have their own free apps too.

We’re planning to bring titles to more platforms over time, selectively and title by title. Nothing else is announced yet.

Where can I buy the books?

Each book page on this site links straight to the purchase page. We don’t sell directly.

Where a book is depends on its language. Spanish and Portuguese titles are on Amazon, with Kindle Unlimited enrollment varying by title — the book page always shows whether a given title is included. Korean titles are on Google Play Books and Apple Books instead, since Amazon’s Kindle store doesn’t support Korean the same way. We’ll be adding more platforms over time, one title at a time rather than all at once.

Is it on Kindle Unlimited?

For our Spanish and Portuguese titles, it depends on the book — Kindle Unlimited enrollment is decided title by title, not across the whole catalog at once. The book page always shows whether a specific title is included. When it is, KU subscribers can read it at no extra cost.

Our Korean titles aren’t on Kindle at all, so Kindle Unlimited doesn’t apply to them — see “Why aren’t the Korean books on Amazon or Kindle Unlimited?” below.

Why are the Spanish and Portuguese books only on Amazon?

Being on Amazon lets us enroll those titles in Kindle Unlimited, which means a reader can try a book without deciding in advance whether it’s the right level for them — and that matters more for language learners than for most readers. Nobody wants to spend money finding out a book is too hard.

It’s not permanent for those languages either. We’ll be opening up other platforms as we go, title by title. If you’re waiting on a specific one, tell us through the contact form — it genuinely affects the order we get to them.

This doesn’t apply to our Korean titles, which are on other platforms from the start — see the next question.

Do I need a Kindle device to read these?

No, for our Spanish and Portuguese titles on Amazon — the free Kindle app runs on iPhone, Android, iPad, Mac, and Windows, and you can read in a browser too. Any device you already own will work.

Our Korean titles are on Google Play Books and Apple Books instead, each with their own free apps — see “Where can I buy the books?”

More FAQs

More to Read

Your guide to reading in Latin American Spanish Where to start, what to do when you get stuck, and more. Reading in Latin American Spanish