The acclaimed novel of Spain's economic crisis - a timely masterpiece.\nUnder a weak winter sun in small-town Spain, a man discovers a rotting corpse in a marsh. It’s a despairing town filled with half-finished housing developments and unemployment, a place defeated by the burst of the economic bubble.\nStuck in the same town is Esteban, his small factory bankrupt, his investments gone, the sole carer to his mute, invalid father. As Esteban’s disappointment and fury lead him to form a dramatic plan to reverse financial ruin, other voices float up from the wreckage. Stories of loss twist together to form a kaleidoscopic image of Spain’s crisis. And the corpse in the marsh is just one.\nChirbes’s rhythmic, torrential style creates a Spanish masterpiece for our age.

On the Edge

Literature & Fiction

Chirbes, Rafael

Literary

Vintage

On the Edgeis a monumental fresco of a brutal contemporary Spain in free fallOn the Edge opens with the discovery of a rotting corpse in the marshes on the outskirts of Olba, Spain―a town wracked by despair after the burst of the economic bubble, and a microcosm of a world of defeat, debt, and corruption. Stuck in this town is Esteban―his small factory bankrupt, his investments stolen by a “friend,” and his unloved father, a mute invalid, entirely his personal burden. Much of the novel unfolds in Esteban’s raw and tormented monologues. But other voices resound from the wreckage―soloists stepping forth from the choir―and their words, sharp as knives, crowd their terse, hypnotic monologues of ruin, prostitution, and loss. Chirbes alternates this choir of voices with a majestic third-person narration, injecting a profound and moving lyricism and offering the hope that a new vitality can emerge from the putrid swamps. On the Edge, even as it excoriates, pulsates with robust life, and its rhythmic, torrential style marks the novel as an indelible masterpiece.

New Directions

Along the Mediterranean coastline of Spain, real-estate developers scramble to transform the once pastoral landscape into tourist resorts, nightclubs, and beachfront properties with lavish bars and pools. The booming post-Franco years have left everything up for grabs. Cremation opens with the death of Matías, a paterfamilias who had rejected all of these changes and whose passing sets off a chain reaction, uncovering a past that had been buried for years, and leading those closest to him to question the paths they've chosen. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In a rich mosaic narrative, filled with a hypnotic chorus of voices, Cremation explores the coked-up champagne fizz of luxurious parties shadowed by underworlds of political corruption, prostitution, and ruthless financial speculation. The novel enters that melancholy ouroboros of capitalist greed that led to the financial crash and captures something essential about our values, our choices, and our all too human mistakes. Like William Faulkner or Francis Bacon, Chirbes stares, clear-eyed, into the abyss, and portrays us as we really are.

Cremation

On the Edge opens with the discovery of a rotting corpse in the marshes on the outskirts of Olba, Spain ― a town wracked by despair after the burst of the economic bubble, and a microcosm of a world of defeat, debt and corruption. Stuck in this town is Esteban ― his small factory bankrupt, his investments stolen by a‘friend’, and his unloved father, a mute invalid, entirely his personal burden. Much of the novel unfolds in Esteban’s raw and tormented monologues. But other voices resound from the wreckage and their words, sharp as knives, crowd their terse, hypnotic monologues of ruin, prostitution and loss. Chirbes alternates this choir of voices with a majestic third-person narration, injecting a profound and moving lyricism and offering the hope that a new vitality can emerge from the putrid swamps. On the Edge, even as it excoriates, pulsates with robust life, and its rhythmic, torrential style marks the novel as an indelible masterpiece.

HARVILL/SECKER

A teacher with literary aspirations, bored with his native Spain, travels to Morocco. He arrives in the ancient city of Fez, where he learns to appreciate the depth and richness of the local Arab culture. Still yearning to be away from the noise and bustle of city life, however, he moves to a house on the lower slopes of the Atlas mountains, where he hopes to find the space and tranquility that have so long eluded him.

Mimoun (Masks)

Contemporary

Serpent's Tail

Crémation

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Rivages *

Die schöne Schrift.

Heyne

Seguramente Chirbes no quiso salvarnos de esa parte nuestra de maldad que tanto nos duele: ni era un ingenuo ni tenía alma de redentor. Pero si en el presente o en el futuro alguien quiere comprender lo que fue la España de finales del siglo XX y comienzos del XXI, deberá leer Crematorio, un extenuante y maravilloso torrente de personajes y temas que atrapa y zarandea sin piedad. Leerlo es reír y llorar, indignarse y conmoverse, porque su escritura –siempre en esa excepcional y canónica primera persona que manejaba como nadie– es lo más parecido a la revolución que tanto soñó y que nunca se cumplió. Nada queda impune o ignorado: la corrupción, las relaciones familiares, la especulación inmobiliaria, la gastronomía, el paisaje, el sexo, la emigración, la amistad, la enfermedad... No, Chirbes no quiso salvarnos, pero de alguna manera lo logró al escribir un clásico desolador, brillante y atemporal, una de esas raras obras que reclaman nuestra curiosidad y nuestra sensibilidad, a la vez que nos invitan a reflexionar y nos explican –aunque no queramos escucharlo– quiénes somos. 
Leer Crematorio –qué ironía, Rafael, no te rías– nos hace mejores. Gracias. 
Paco Goyanes 
Librería Cálamo 
Ilustración de cubierta 
Fernando Vicente\nBook Description\nSeguramente Chirbes no quiso salvarnos de esa parte nuestra de maldad que tanto nos duele: ni era un ingenuo ni tenía alma de redentor. Pero si en el presente o en el futuro alguien quiere comprender lo que fue la España de finales del siglo XX y comienzos del XXI, deberá leer Crematorio, un extenuante y maravilloso torrente de personajes y temas que atrapa y zarandea sin piedad. Leerlo es reír y llorar, indignarse y conmoverse, porque su escritura –siempre en esa excepcional y canónica primera persona que manejaba como nadie– es lo más parecido a la revolución que tanto soñó y que nunca se cumplió. Nada queda impune o ignorado: la corrupción, las relaciones familiares, la especulación inmobiliaria, la gastronomía, el paisaje, el sexo, la emigración, la amistad, la enfermedad... No, Chirbes no quiso salvarnos, pero de alguna manera lo logró al escribir un clásico desolador, brillante y atemporal, una de esas raras obras que reclaman nuestra curiosidad y nuestra sensibilidad, a la vez que nos invitan a reflexionar y nos explican –aunque no queramos escucharlo– quiénes somos. 
Leer Crematorio –qué ironía, Rafael, no te rías– nos hace mejores. Gracias. 
Paco Goyanes 
Librería Cálamo 
Ilustración de cubierta 
Fernando Vicente

Crematorio (Spanish Edition)

Editorial Anagrama

La larga marcha

Genre Fiction

Mimoun

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