Death in Spring - Penguin European Writers
Death in Spring - Penguin European Writers
paperback | English
Published:
5 April, 2018
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Description
'Soaringly beautiful, urgent and disturbing... A masterpiece.' Colm Tóibín, from the introduction
'Dark and beautiful and brilliant' Sarah Moss, author of Ghost Wall
Death in Spring is a dark and dream-like tale of a teenage boy's coming of age in a remote village in the Catalan mountains; a place cut off from the outside world, where cruel customs are blindly followed, and attempts at rebellion swiftly crushed. When his father dies, he must navigate this oppressive society alone, and learn how to live in a place of crippling conformity.
Often seen as an allegory for life under a dictatorship, Death in Spring is a bewitching and unsettling novel about power, exile, and the hope that comes from even the smallest gestures of independence.
'Rodoreda has bedazzled me' Gabriel Garcia Marquez
'Rodoreda's artistry is of the highest order' Diana Athill
'Read it for its beauty, for the way it will surprise and subvert your desires, and as a testament to the human spirit in the face of brutality and willful inhumanity.' Jesmyn Ward, author of Sing, Unburied, Sing
'Utterly extraordinary' Claire-Louise Bennett, author of Pond
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9780241352540 |
| ISBN10 | 0241352541 |
| Number Of Pages | 160 |
| Item Weight | 130 g |
| Product Dimensions | 129 x 196 x 12 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Format | paperback |
Media Reviews
Soaringly beautiful, urgent and disturbing... A masterpiece -- Colm Tóibín, from the introduction
Mercè Rodoreda's artistry is of the highest order -- Diana Athill
Dark and beautiful and brilliant -- Sarah Moss
Rodoreda has bedazzled me -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Read it for its beauty, for the way it will surprise and subvert your desires, and as a testament to the human spirit in the face of brutality and willful inhumanity -- Jesmyn Ward, author of 'Sing, Unburied, Sing' * NPR *
Utterly extraordinary - I have had few reading experiences like it - it's as if one is unravelling a terrible yet irresistible secret, the secret of death -- Claire-Louise Bennett, author of 'Pond'
The greatest contemporary Catalan novelist and possibly the best Mediterranean woman author since Sappho -- David H Rosenthal
A heartbreaking, unforgettable read. One of the most important literary works from the second half of the 20th century * El Cultural *
It is a total mystery to me why [Rodoreda] isn't widely worshipped. . . . She's on my list of authors whose works I intend to have read all of before I die. Tremendous, tremendous writer -- John Darnielle, author of 'Wolf in White Van'
One of the most radical works from the past century * El Pais *
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Mercè Rodoreda was born in Barcelona in 1908. During the Spanish Civil War she was exiled to France and later Switzerland. Rodoreda was only able to return to Barcelona in the mid-1960s, where she wrote several prize-winning novels in Catalan, including Death in Spring, which was inspired by her experience of Franco's dictatorship. Rodoreda died in 1983, a few years before Death in Spring's first publication, and is widely regarded as the most important Catalan writer of the twentieth century.