{"id":8528,"date":"2021-12-21T06:10:08","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T06:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=8528"},"modified":"2021-12-24T14:13:57","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T14:13:57","slug":"the-penguin-book-of-spanish-short-stories-edited-by-margaret-jull-costa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=8528","title":{"rendered":"The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories Edited by Margaret Jull Costa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Published by Penguin Random House UK 24 June 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

416pp, hardback, \u00a325.00<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Alison Burns<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to buy this book<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In her brief introduction to this book of riches, the supremely distinguished translator Margaret Jull Costa recommends that the reader treat it like a box of chocolates, or like a book of poems, both of whose contents are best savoured one or two at a time.\u00a0 Having consumed the lot in the space of a few days, this reviewer does not feel any of the consequences of over-indulgence but rather a strong desire to read them all over again.\u00a0 Here is the most wonderful treat: fifty-six stories, from the nineteenth century to the present day and including writers from all of Spain\u2019s four languages, translated with panache and showcasing a huge range of imaginative talent.<\/p>\n

The collection is arranged chronologically according to the author\u2019s date of birth.\u00a0 It starts with the tale of a man on a tram confusing fiction with fact and ends with a young mother confusing her baby with a vampire.\u00a0 In between are stories about miracles, murder, innocence, nostalgia; about work, sex and selfishness.\u00a0 The tones vary from the ominous to the comical, from the far-fetched to the utterly realistic.\u00a0 War, especially the Spanish Civil War, is ever present, but there is also mystery and joy.<\/p>\n

Depth of feeling seems to be a unifying thread also.\u00a0 That and the bite of truth.\u00a0 Truly anything can happen in life (above all in the life of the mind), and in these stories we are persuaded that it has.\u00a0 For why should not a woman be enfolded by an angel, or a man be swallowed by an umbrella? Such things are scarcely odder than a child who runs away or an old man who feels sad.\u00a0 We need these images, as we need the stories that contain them, if we are to see ourselves reflected and be consoled.<\/p>\n

Jull Costa has done a great service to readers in English: \u2018I wanted, where possible, to choose and translate stories that hadn\u2019t previously been translated into English or which, in my entirely biased opinion, would benefit from a fresh translation.\u2019\u00a0 She read a great many wonderful stories, most of which were entirely new even to her, and from them has chosen a sublime selection. \u00a0Let us hope that Volume 2 may follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

* A 2021 Notable Book<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Alison Burns<\/p>\n

The collection is arranged chronologically according to the author\u2019s date of birth. It starts with the tale of a man on a tram confusing fiction with fact and ends with a young mother confusing her baby with a vampire. In between are stories about miracles, murder, innocence, nostalgia; about work, sex and selfishness. The tones vary from the ominous to the comical, from the far-fetched to the utterly realistic. War, especially the Spanish Civil War, is ever present, but there is also mystery and joy […] in Reviews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-fiction-and-non-fiction","category-notable-books","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8528"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8570,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8528\/revisions\/8570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}