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 Greetings everyone. This issue we have three specially-selected stories from the U.S. - from Rachel Resnick (author of Go West Young F*cked-Up Chick) and Josh Wardrip there are two vivid and arresting non-traditional pieces while Alden Jones delivers a spirited and original road story. And from here in Barcelona Matthew Tree offers a story, translated from the Catalan, from his award-winning collection, Ella ve quan vol. Also from Spain, we have a short piece of prose-poetry about an unruly skirt by Marjorie Kanter Delgado. |
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from the U.S. Josh Wardrip |
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| Our interview this issue is with the above mentioned Matthew
Tree, an Englishman who first made his mark as a Catalan novelist and recently won
Catalunya’s prestigious Andròmina Award. Michael Garry Smout asks why and how and
who and what it takes to make the artistic leap to another culture, another language.
This issue’s quiz is on Jorge Luis Borges. Aficionados jump in. A free book is offered to the winner. We didn’t have a winner for last issue’s Lorca Quiz, but some close calls came from Simon Andrewes (Spain) and Emma Thomas (U.K.). See Lorca Quiz Answers.
Next month sees Sant Jordi’s Day (Saint George’s Day) here in Catalunya on April 23rd, which happens this year to coincide with Easter. Normally, World Book Day - a tradition initiated by Catalunya in a vigorous campaign through UNESCO - is held on Sant Jordi’s Day, although this year in the U.K. and Ireland it has been moved back to March 10th so that it falls during the school term, which is only appropriate as the emphasis there is on children - all schoolchildren receive a free World Book Day voucher - and developing countries: see www.bookaid.org Here it will be business as usual as publishers and booksellers zealously take to the streets to peddle their wares in what invariably proves to be the biggest-selling book day of the year (up to nearly 30% of annual sales were made on this day last year). Drop by on that date for photos of the day’s book-and-rose street fair. Of note: TBR holds the dubious honor of having read and reviewed Apostolos Doxiadis’ Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture a full year before this month’s appearance of the novel in English. I had read the manuscript for a Spanish publishing house that bought rights for a translation and I mistakenly thought the English version was already available. That was yet to come. Uncle Petros appears in the U.K. this March and was released in February in the U.S. We may have jumped the gun, but can’t say we don’t know a good thing when we see it. Don’t miss this delightful novel which brings mathematics to life (even for left-brain-deficient people like myself) and probes the beauty, mystery and torment of obsession (see review). We’ll be back on-line around the first week of May. Click here if you'd like to be notified when new issues are up. In the meantime, read and enjoy.... Saludos,
Jill Adams, editor |
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Marjorie
Kanter Delgado The Skirt
M.G.Smout
Jorge Luis Borges
Apostolos Doxiadis Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture E.L.
Doctorow
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