Come On Up

by Jordi Nopca, Mara Faye Lethem (Translator)

Overview

Global capitalism fails young Barcelona couples in this dynamic debut

“Heartbreaking and hilarious” —New York Times Book Review

“Nopca’s stories, written with clarity and flair, are smart and modern, filled with sharply observed detail. They capture the unease of the times and the flux of contemporary life in Barcelona with wit, wisdom, moments of pure hilarity, and a mixture of sympathy and dark laughter.” —Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn and House of Names

What happens when the hopes of a generation are dashed by austerity policies and underemployment? Come On Up is a group portrait of contemporary Barcelona, beaten by the economic crisis and divided by a secessionist movement. Always witty, often absurdist, these stories offer a mesmerizing glimpse into the daily lives of couples, families, and neighbors living the new normal of the 21st century.

A husband seeks revenge on his wife as they stalk author Peter Stamm; an out-of-work bartender fills his empty days by shoving bananas into the tailpipes of parked cars; a mysterious ritual, spied through a neighbor’s window, arouses deadly spirits. Masterfully paced, the eleven mordant stories of Come On Up draw us into an embattled world whose past is unresolved and whose future is uncertain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781942658801
Publisher:	Bellevue Literary Press
Publication date:	02/09/2021
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jordi Nopca is the author of two novels and the short story collection Come On Up. Named a “Young Catalan Writer to Watch” by Culture Trip, his books have received the Proa and Documenta Prizes. Nopca is also an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in Time Out Barcelona and Words Without Borders. Based in Barcelona, Nopca is editor of the newspaper Ara and its literary supplement Ara Llegim. Come On Up is his first book of fiction to appear in English.

Mara Faye Lethem is an award-winning translator of numerous Catalan writers, including Jaume Cabré, Marta Orriols, Max Besora, Alicia Kopf, Jordi Nopca, Albert Sánchez Piñol, Toni Sala, and Irene Solà. Her translations have received two English PEN Awards and have been longlisted for the National Translation Award and the International DUBLIN Literary Award. They have also appeared in the Guardian, Tin House, Paris Review, Granta, Words Without Borders, A Public Space, McSweeney's, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn and Barcelona.

Editorial Reviews

11/16/2020

Citizens on the fringe of Catalan society are the stars in Spanish journalist Nopca’s witty collection, his English-language debut. In “Don’t Leave,” an aspiring art historian deals with a clash between her boyfriend and a charming suitor. “Àngels Quintana and Fèlix Palme Have Problems” follows a waiter who loses his job after arguing with rude customers and inadvertently starts a movement by sticking bananas into the exhaust pipes of motorcycles owned by Barcelona’s cultural elite. In the best story, “Candles and Robes,” a family’s neighbors perform rituals to return spirits to the world of the dead. Emotions are often distilled through an omniscient narrator’s wry asides. In “An Intersectional Conservationist at Heart,” in which an arrogant professor dies after getting a young journalist and her boyfriend fired, the couple sees a Tarantino film, “another one of his stories of vengeance and payback.” While Nopca relies a bit too heavily on describing dreams to reveal characters, he succeeds at tying the stories to Barcelona’s fraught place in the Catalan secession movement. All of the stories make noise, and some of them really take off. Agent: Sandra Pareja, Casanovas & Lynch Literary Agency. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Documenta Prize Winner
Big Other Book Award Finalist

“In Lethem’s witty translation from Catalan, the 11 stories [of Come On Up] are heartbreaking and hilarious, tender and violent.” —New York Times Book Review

“Filled with caustic wit and pointed satire . . . [Come On Up] paints a sympathetic portrait of people trying to adapt to the instability that defines their ‘new normal’.” —World Literature Today

“[Nopca’s] stories skillfully traverse decadence and depravity, splendor and squalor, the tragic and the comic, the boring and the absurd.” —Cleaver Magazine

“Delightfully witty, insightful, and masterfully told.” —Booklist

“These short stories chronicle the romantic, intellectual, and economic frustrations of disparate characters. . . . From intellectual satire to slapstick comedy, [Come On Up] covers plenty of emotional terrain.” —Kirkus Reviews

“[Come On Up] movingly illustrate[s] the human shame of financial insecurity, with multidimensional characters that give life to sterile government jobless reports.” —Shelf Awareness

“All of the stories make noise, and some of them really take off.” —Publishers Weekly

“Wry yet tender, Jordi Nopca’s stories are a chronicle of the sentimental and existential doubts of Barcelona’s struggling younger generation—just trust me: read them.” —Jordi Puntí, author of Lost Luggage and This Is Not America

“Nopca’s stories, written with clarity and flair, are smart and modern, filled with sharply observed detail. They capture the unease of the times and the flux of contemporary life in Barcelona with wit, wisdom, moments of pure hilarity, and a mixture of sympathy and dark laughter.” —Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn and House of Names

“The day will come when there’ll be no need to keep repeating how Nopca’s talent and his corrosive humor have exploded and electrified the literature of Spain: it will be common knowledge.” —Enrique Vila-Matas, author of Bartleby & Co. and Mac’s Problem

From the Publisher

2020-12-15
These short stories chronicle the romantic, intellectual, and economic frustrations of disparate characters in Barcelona.

The stories in Catalan writer Nopca’s English-language debut often take an intimate view of their characters. For some, that involves venturing in the minutiae of a relationship; for others, it’s about taking a deep dive into the characters' literary and artistic tastes. The first story, “An Intersectional Conservationist at Heart,” establishes the milieu very quickly; it focuses on a handful of meetings between a journalist and a poet and academic. Despite the story’s weighty title and the literary allusions found within—including mentions of V.S. Naipaul and Harold Pinter—Nopca is less focused on intellectual credibility than on the missed connections, petty rivalries, and ethical lapses his characters must contend with. These stories don’t focus only on intellectuals, however: “Àngels Quintana and Fèlix Palme Have Problems” tells the story of a couple working in bars and hotels who find themselves out of work after they hit 40 in youth-obsessed Barcelona. Bars also play a significant role in “The Neighbor Ladies,” whose immigrant protagonist, Jia, begins to question his chosen vocation as a bar owner after learning the tragic life story of a hard-drinking woman who regularly asks him for “gin tonic.” The highlight of the collection is “Swiss Army Knife,” about a middle-aged couple whose fondness for reading the literature of the countries they visit drives a rift between them. Gradually, the real-life Swiss writer Peter Stamm takes on a greater and greater significance for both of them, leading to a conclusion that’s both deadpan comedic and harrowingly bleak. These stories can occasionally feel a little too witty, but their moments of wry humor and human interaction are frequently rewarding.

From intellectual satire to slapstick comedy, this book covers plenty of emotional terrain.

Kirkus Reviews