The International Bestseller of the Spanish Civil War - Winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction PrizeIn the final moments of the Spanish Civil War, fifty prominent Nationalist prisoners are executed by firing squad. Among them is the writer and fascist Rafael Sanchez Mazas. As the guns fire, he escapes into the forest, and can hear a search party and their dogs hunting him down. The branches move and he finds himself looking into the eyes of a militiaman, and fac...

In February 1981, as Spain emerged from Franco's dictatorship and prepared for its first democratic vote for a new prime minister, Colonel Tejero and a band of right-wing soldiers burst into parliament and began firing shots. Only three men refused to take cover: Adolfo Suárez, the outgoing prime minister who had guided Spain out of authoritarianism; General Gutiérrez Mellado, a conservative general loyal to democracy; and Santiago Carrillo, the head of the Communist Party, which had just ...

No one knows the recipe for happiness – and yet Héctor Abad has given us a whole volume. His recipes, at times bizarre, at times wise, can cure almost anything – although the ingredients are not always easy to come by. "Cauliflower in the mist" is protection against melancholy, seasoned with salty tears; and the right preparation of lobster and cutlet can have extraordinary effects on the human mind.With subtle wit and irony, Abad gives practical advice on how to eschew sadness, att...

Eduardo Halfon's The Polish Boxer is the sparkling English debut from one of Latin America's most exciting new voices. Blurring the boundary between fiction and memoir, the tales within all reach for the beautiful and fleeting, whether through humour, music, poetry, or unspoken words. Throughout his encounters with fascinating collection of characters, the narrator - a Guatemalan literature professor and writer named Eduardo Halfon - pursues his most enigmatic subject: himself. Translated ...

Eduardo Halfon's "Tomorrow We Never Did Talk About It" follows closely the departure of a well-off industrialist Jewish family from Guatemala in the early 1980s. The events are seen from the point of view of the naive, inquisitive ten-year-old son. In Anne McLean's vivid translation, the wrenching upheaval of the family's departure emerges as a microcosm of the country's descent into hell.“Guatemala may be tranquil, but Eduardo Halfon is a narrative volcano.” — Neue Zür...

A father's worst nightmare - Melchor Marín's teenage daughter has disappeared.Years have passed since Melchor took revenge for his mother's murder and at last found peace with his daughter Cosette in the sleepy backwater of Terra Alta.But their idyll is shattered when one day Cosette, now seventeen, discovers that her father has been concealing the truth of her mother's death- that she was killed in a hit-and-run "accident" intended to scare Melcho...

The mayor of Barcelona is being blackmailed.A sex tape from her student days - one she never knew existed. The price: 300,000 euros and her immediate resignation.A political chameleon who swept to power on a populist wave, she has her enemies. Nor can she trust those closest to her. Both her ex-husband and her deputy would profit from her fall.Melchor Marín, living a quiet life in Terra Alta, is tempted back to Barcelona to work the case. But what s...

"One of the great novels to have been written in our language" MARIO VARGAS LLOSA"Beautifully written and gripping" GuardianHe thought that memories were invisible like light, and just as smoke made light show, there must be a way for memories to be seen...In October 2016, the real-life Colombian film director Sergio Cabrera is attending a retrospective of his films in Barcelona. It's a difficult time for h...

A Melchor Marín novel. Winner of Spain's biggest literary prize - the Premio PlanetaWhen Melchor goes to investigate the horrific double-murder of a rich printer and his wife in rural Cataluña nothing quite adds up. The young cop from the big city, hero of a foiled terrorist attack, has been sent to Terra Alta till things quieten down. Observant, streetwise and circumspect, Melchor is also an outsider.The son of a Barcelona prostitute who never knew his fat...

A chilling allegorical novella by the masterful Colombian writer who poses timeless questions about violence and subjugation, power and freedom.Imagining the darkest of power imbalances in a dystopian world, in which the most vulnerable are held captive and wherein survival depends on the ability to remain anonymous, identity is a threat. Those who have everything would revel in the humiliation of others and identification brings with it the ultimate punishment. Wh...

"Like Bolaño, Vásquez is a master stylist and a virtuoso of patient pacing and intricate structure" LEV GROSSMAN, Time Magazine"Juan Gabriel Vásquez . . . has succeeded García Márquez as the literary grandmaster of Colombia" ARIEL DORFMAN, New York Review of BooksA morally complex, searing set of stories by the award-winning author of The Sound of Things Fallin...

Eugenie and Brutus are very best friends, they travel together till each journey ends. Eugenie's a trailer and Brutus a truck, theyre so glad they met, it was very good luck.