Our weekend in Porto introduced me to José de Almada Negreiros, a Portuguese writer and artist, of whom, I admit, I had never heard before. The Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis is a museum named after António Soares dos Reis, the Portuguese sculptor who left many of his works to the museum, after committing suicide … Read more
A long weekend in Porto revealed a few things, one of which is that it is wetter and colder in Porto than in (the South of) England. We visited the Livraria Lello, a bookshop famous for its appearance. As you can see from my not very good photo to the left, it is certainly an … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Baltasar Porcel‘s Primaveras y otoños (Springs and Autumns). The novel is set at a Christmas Eve dinner in modern times at Taltavull Hall, home of the Taltavull family, living in Orlandis, Majorca (based on Porcel’s home town of Andratx). The novel tells the stories of several of the … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Jesús Moncada‘s Camí de sirga (The Towpath). This is is factionalised account of the town of Mequinenza, Moncada’s home town. which was moved to the other side of the river Ebro to make way for a hydroelectric dam. Moncada gives an affectionate but at times mocking account of … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Víctor Català‘s Solitud (Solitude). Víctor Català (real name: Caterina Albert i Paradís) published this novel in 1905 but, though she lived to 1966, only published one more novel. It was this novel that made her name. It is both a feminist novel but also a fine story. A … Read more
Every year at around this time, I focus my reading on one country. My original plan was to focus on another country but, with recent events in Catalonia, I decided to move it to the top of the list. If you are a supporter of Mr. Rajoy, you may well argue that Catalonia is not … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Clarice Lispector‘s O lustre (The Chandelier). This is Lispector’s second novel, written when she was in her early twenties, and now published in English more than seventy years after publication in Portuguese. Much of the novel takes place in the head of Virginia, whom we first meet as … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Miklós Szentkuthy‘s Fekete Reneszánsz (Black Renaissance). This is the second in his St Orpheus Breviary series. It has not yet been translated into English (I read it in French) but will be appearing from Contra Mundum Press in the not too distant future. Nominally about Claudio Monteverdi, his … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès‘ L’Île du Point Némo (Island of Point Nemo). Like his earlier work, this is a madcap romp, with adventures, sex and violence, world travel and characters from all over the world. It features amputated feet, a racing pigeon fancying, breast-loving Chinese manufacturer of e-readers, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Gloria Guardia‘s Tiniebla blanca [White Darkness]. The unnamed narrator, like Guardia, is a Panamanian student at Vassar College. One evening, while in New York, she has forgotten her money and tracks down an uncle and aunt, Antonio and Carmen. They are very friendly but she soon discovers that … Read more