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Fireflies, although set in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, could readily take place in a bellicose situation anywhere in the world. It contains an exposé of the chasm between generations, between rich and poor, between materialism and idealism. This novel has a socioeconomic/psychological relevance that leaves the reader pondering the consequences of war and the nugatory effects of imposing status quo values on adolescents who are in search of their own truth, their raison d'être. The story centers on the lives of two adolescents from opposite levels of society whose redemption lies in their short-lived mutual love, which ends tragically.
A novel on a Spanish landowner and his bastard half brother to whom he is at once attracted and repelled. The relationship is played out against the background of the approaching 1930s Spanish Civil War, the causes of which the novel examines.
The second volume in a trilogy on the Spanish Civil War. The protagonists are two teenagers, Manuel and Marta. They are brought together by the death of a Republican fighter who was his friend and her husband. The novel chronicles their growing involvement against the background of the war.
A Spanish writer's approach by the intimist route to the still unassuaged griefs of the Civil War...What happens is that the protected bourgeois world in which it is possible to go on with the pretext of childishness at fourteen is split open by the realities of war, or, rather, the realities of which the war is the expression.
The Foolish Children contains twenty-one micro-fiction stories by Ana Maria Matute in Spanish and in English translation. It was rated by the Nobel laureate Camilo Jose Cela as "the most important work written in Spanish by a woman since the Countess Emilia Pardo Bazan."
In The Trap, Ana Maria Matute explores ties that bind family, society and culture. Through her compelling use of a powerful feminine first-person narrative, Matute highlights the experience of women during the tumultuous years of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Matute delicately weaves a feminist subtext into the larger context of Spain's difficulties in dealing with gender, class and cultural distinctions. She draws from her own experiences to paint a literary picture of the conflict between two groups: the people she calls the merchants - who deny the vitality of life - and the soldiers - who believe in tolerance. In this third novel of the famous trilogy, The Merchants, Matute examines the lasting effects of social upheaval, discrimination and lives trapped in conflict.
This exciting collection celebrates the richness and variety of the Spanish short story, from the nineteenth century to the present day. Featuring over fifty stories selected by revered translator Margaret Jull Costa, it blends old favourites and hidden gems - many of which have never before been translated into English - and introduces readers to surprising new voices as well as giants of Spanish literary culture, from Emilia Pardo Bazán and Leopoldo Alas, through Mercè Rodoreda and Manuel Rivas, to Ana Maria Matute and Javier Marías. Brimming with romance, horror, history, farce, strangeness and beauty, and showcasing alluring hairdressers, war defectors, vampiric mothers, and talismanic mandrake roots, the daring and entertaining assortment of tales in The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories will be a treasure trove for readers.
New Poetry
Set on the rugged, mountainous west coast of Mallorca, this taut, sultry, brilliantly paced novel is an urgent meditation on female desire, the vicissitudes of marriage and the allure of youth. Taking place over the course of one week, The Lemon Grove lands in the heat of Deia, a village on an island off the southeast coast of Spain. Jenn and Greg are on their annual holiday to enjoy languorous, close afternoons by the pool, and relaxed dinners overlooking the rocks. But the equilibrium is upset by the arrival of their teenage daughter, Emma, and her boyfriend, Nathan. Jenn, in her early forties, loves her (older) husband and her (step)daughter and is content with her life, she thinks. But w...