Buenas dias from Gracia, this is a special edition of the Rorshok Spain Update. This week,
Our writer is on holiday, so in place of the usual, we'll just list some great books about Spain, we'd love to hear more, send them in or post somewhere with the hashtag RorshokSpain or email to [email protected] and we will let listeners know. So....our list.
For recent history, Ghosts of Spain — Giles Tremlett (2007) about memories and the role of the Civil War.
For those looking for the facts, A Concise History of Spain by Carla and William Philips
For just sheer greatness, Homage to Catalonia George Orwell 1938
OK, it's old and long but hilarious and it is after all the first real novel. Don Quixote — Miguel Cervantes (1605) I'd go for the Rutherford Translation
From not that long after the French almost blew up the Alhambra, Tales of the Alhambra — Washington Irving from 1838
The Shadow of the Wind — Carlos Ruiz Zafón (2001) great novel about Barcelona over the decades around the Civil War.
The Sun Also Rises — Ernest Hemingway (1926) need we say more, about the Civil War
Cathedral of the Sea — Ildefonso Falcones (2006) by Idelfonso Falcones about the fifteen hundreds when the people's cathedral was built in Barcelona, also The Hand of Fatima
The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner from 2006, a historical novel about Juana la Loca who in long tradition of calling smart women crazy was not in fact loca.
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning” Laurie Lee about going to Spain during the Civil War, also wrote A Rose For Winter about the period after the Civil War
Driving Over Lemons by Chris Stewart, funny, about moving to a village in Andalucia.
A Broken Mirror, novel by Mercè Rodoreda, takes place in Barcelona
The Lonely Hearts Club novel by Raul Nuñez, takes place in Barcelona.
Leans towards Catalunya and foreigners talking about Spain rather than the Spanish talking about themselves, but there you are.
These will all be in the show notes...
Hasta la proxima!