I have made no secret of the fact that I consider Rafael Chirbes to have been a brilliant writer and his untimely death a few months ago was a great tragedy. His last book published will be out in English next year. I am now glad to learn that a Rafael Chirbes foundation is to … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Enrique Vila-Matas‘ Exploradores del abismo [Explorers of the Abyss]. This book is not a novel but, rather, a collection of linked short stories, about what Vila-Matas calls exploring the abyss, though his ideas of what is exploring the abyss may not be shared by everyone. Only one of … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Enrique Vila-Matas‘ Dublinesca (Dublinesque). It is about a retired publisher, Samuel Riba, a former alcoholic, the alcoholism being one of the reasons for his retirement, who prided himself on publishing quality contemporary fiction in Spanish, with a fiction list which seems to match the taste of Vila-Matas. He … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Enrique Vila-Matas‘ Kassel no invita a la lógica (The Illogic of Kassel). This is the most recent to date of his novels published both in English and Spanish. It involves the participation of the narrator (i.e.Vila-Matas) in Documenta-13, an event held every five years in Kassel, Germany, devoted … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Enrique Vila-Matas‘ Aire de Dylan [Looks Like Dylan]. This book is somewhat different from many of his previous ones. Though it does start with the normal approach – our narrator invited to a conference on a specific theme – it then takes a completely different tack. The conference … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Enrique Vila-Matas‘ Doctor Pasavento. This is typical Vila-Matas, a wonderfully inventive story, full of digressions literary learning, speculations, complications and stories. It is narrated by an unnamed narrator but a man who assumes various identities, including that of Dr (and dottore, i.e. the Italian for doctor) Pasavento, Dr … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Enrique Vila-Matas‘ El mal de Montano (Montano’s Malady). This a wonderfully post-modern novel, following on from Bartleby y compañía (Bartleby & Co.), a romp through modern (primarily European and Latin American) literature and narrated by the father of the author of the book in Bartleby y compañía (Bartleby … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Enrique Vila-Matas‘ Bartleby y compañía (Bartleby & Co.). This is perhaps more literary criticism than a novel. It is narrated by a man called Marcelo who wrote a novel twenty-five years ago and has not written anything since. His new work is to be about writers he calls … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Lucia Etxebarría‘s Un milagro en equilibrio [A Miracle in the Balance]. This tells the story of Eva Agulló, a Spanish woman who, early in the novel, has given birth to a baby, Amanda, and recounts her life to that date. When young she had done lots of sex, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Enrique Vila-Matas‘ París no se acaba nunca (Never Any End to Paris). This is a fun post-modern novel, nominally about the two years the unnamed author, but clearly Vila-Matas himself, spent in Paris writing his first novel. It is told in the form of a three day lecture … Read more