Barcelona Tales

by Peter Bush, Helen Constantine (Editor)

Overview

Barcelona is one of the most visited cities in Europe, a multilingual capital of an autonomous region that longs to be independent of Spain. The city is famous for its painters, modernist architecture, style of football, and its history, but as Peter Bush reveals it has always been a major centre of literary talent and creativity.

Barcelona Tales presents a selection of newly translated short stories by 14 writers, many of them Catalan. The stories explore the themes of migration and class conflict in a city renowned in world literature from the day rural innocents Don Quixote and Sancho Panza visited its streets at the beginning of the seventeenth-century, and witnessed the wonders of the printing press and the cruelties of slavery. Together, they open up the city in ironic, tragic, and lyrical ways, inviting readers to explore fictional lives and literary styles that reflect the dynamic, conflict-ridden character and history of this great European city.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198798378
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/01/2019
Series:	City Tales
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	7.60(w) x 5.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Helen Constantine
Peter Bush first went to Barcelona in 1968 to research writing inspired by the 1868 Revolution; in 1970 he returned to help set up a group opposed to the Franco dictatorship. He lived in Barcelona for 10 years after retiring from his post as Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation in 2003. An award-winning literary translator, he has translated over seventy books from Catalan, French, Portuguese and Spanish: modern classics like Merce Rodoreda's In Diamond Square or Valle-Inclan's Tyrant Banderas and work by living authors like Jorge Carrion's Bookshops and Najat el Hachmi's The Last Patriarch.

Table of Contents

General Introduction, Helen ConstantineIntroduction, Peter Bush
1. What happened to Don Quixote when he went to Barcelona?, Miguel de Cervantes2. Transplanted, Narcis Oller3. A Brief, Heart-warming Story of a Madame Bovary Born and Bred in Gràcia, Following our Best Principles and Traditions, Montserrat Roig4. Ramon from Montjuic, Josep Pla5. Blitz on Barcelona, C.A. Jordana6. A Detective Story, Juan Marsé7. Three Steps, Miquel Molina8. Dead Time, Teresa Solana9. The Shoe-shine and La Locomotora, Alfredo Bryce Echenique10. Neighbours, Jordi Nopca11. Which Country Do You Want?, Empar Moliner12. The Sound of Keys, Najat El Hachmi13. The Boy who was Sure to Die, Quim Monzo14. Julio, the Parrot and the Taxi Driver, Jorge Carrion
Notes on the AuthorsFurther Reading and ViewingPublisher's AcknowledgementsMap

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating and varied collection, which captures the diversity and atmosphere of the city. — Karen Langley, Shiny New Books

One can always think of some omissions when reading an anthology ... There can be little complaint, though, about these fourteen tales, set in different areas of Barcelona ... They reveal how this industrial port city has been and is a magnet for migrants. They show the class divisions between areas. They trace, too, the development of modern Catalan literature in both Catalan and Spanish. — Michael Eaude, Catalonia Today

Peter Bush, the translator, does an excellent job translating both from Spanish and Catalan into English. He very well replicates the style and flow of the original author ... Helen Constantine and Peter Bush have produced a quite excellent, if slightly quirky, book. A great read for anyone heading to the Catalan capital. — TripFiction

From the Publisher