New Spanish Titles - Autumn 2010

This is a strange novel, a mixture of the old collections of Oriental tales that were so common during the Middle Ages and 20th century adventure novels. Like Scheherazade in the Thousand and One Nights, Zhair must go through many stories, some cruel, some fabulous, to discover the secret jealously guarded by Shibam Kabir, the strange king of the city.

Albert Llimós recounts the story of an authentic, anonymous heroine of the 20th century, who survives and lives with the nobility and misery of the human condition. Teresa has grown up without a mother, in an environment which forces her to discover the wickedness and violence of the human condition at too young an age.

This book offers us an overview of a problem which has been man-made and well documented, and has persisted throughout the history of humanity: hunger. At the end of this journey from antiquity up to the present day, the author concludes that whatever the mode of production and the way of life, the bitter pangs of hunger have been experienced everywhere.

In tumultuous 19th century Spain, one man, Rosendo Roca, refuses to accept his fate and considers a risky proposal that will end up affecting his whole life. As he struggles to succeed, he will have to contend with the aristocracy and the proletariat, with tradition, war, and disease, and with all the contradictions characteristic of a period in constant turmoil.