Uk Panel´s Choice - Spring 2010

We bring you the latest selection by our panel of experts. This time the panel of experts was formed by Sophie Lewis (Dalkey Archive), Sara Lutyens (Lutyens & Rubinstein Bookshop), Bush Peter Roland (translator), Nicholas Caistor (BCLT), Jason Wilson (University College London) and Pete Ayrton (Serpent’s Tail).

The books have been reviewed by our network of independent readers. For this issue the readers were: Sonia Soto, Christina MacSweeney, Alexander Ibarz, Anella McDermott, Jason Wilson, Kit Maude, Laura McGloughlin, Nick Caistor, Lise Jones, Nelly Hermitant, Miranda France, and Anne McLean.

  • Andy Warhol
    Andy Warhol
    Author:
    Patricia Geis
    Publisher: COMBEL EDITORIAL S. A.
    Read report: ¡Mira qué artista!- Andy Warhol
    Art is now within range of even the youngest readers with this magnificent collection of books combining different aspects: information, history, pictures, activities, pop-ups, etc. All that is required to get young readers interested in the world of art, both classical and contemporary, in an amusing and original manner.
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  • Contes Russos
    Russian Tales
    Author:
    Francesc Serés
    Publisher: Acantilado/ QUADERNS CREMA S.A.
    Read report: Contes Russos
    Writers Ola Yevguènieva, Véra-Margarita Abansèrev, Vitali Kroptkin, Aleksandr Vòlkov and Iosif Bergxenko were unbeknownst to me before Anastàssia Maxímovna sent me their short stories. To me, they are part in the fictionalization of fiction.
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  • Contra el viento
    Against the Wind
    Author:
    Ángeles Caso
    Publisher: Editorial Planeta S.A.
    Read report: Contra el viento
    São, a girl who, like everyone in her village, was born to work, decides one day to try and build a better life for herself in Europe. After learning, again and again, how to overcome adversity, she will find a new friend in a Spanish woman who is drowning in her own insecurities.
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  • El funeral celeste
    Celestial funeral
    Author:
    Jordi Sierra i Fabra
    Publisher: Editorial Bruño
    Read report: El Funeral Celeste
    Isaac is spending the summer studying on his own in the city. His life changes when he meets Yam-Mey in a Chinese restaurant. After trying for several nights, he manages to break her silence, only to find out about an unknown and cruel world in which the mafia exerts its power. There is a big secret hiding in the basement of the restaurant, a tragedy that could get them killed.
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  • Elogio de la educación lenta
    A tribute to slow education
    Author:
    Joan Domènech Francesch
    Read report: Elogio de la educación lenta
    Slow movements offer an alternative to the fast pace of modern life: eating, travelling, personal relationships… Everything happens at such a breakneck speed that it’s impossible to get a real taste of things and we get swallowed up by a neurotic and depersonalised society.
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  • Fin
    The end
    Author:
    David Monteagudo Vargas
    Publisher: Acantilado/ QUADERNS CREMA S.A.
    Read report: Fin
    An old friends’ reunion in a mountain lodge gathers a dozen men and women with nothing in common, except an obscure episode in the past in which they were all involved. It left a lasting mark on them all, and it’s perhaps the true and unspeakable reason behind this nostalgic anniversary that nobody seems to be keen on celebrating.
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  • La contadora de películas
    The movie teller
    Author:
    Hernán Rivera Letelier
    Publisher: Ediciones B
    Read report: La contadora de películas
     This is the story of María Margarita, a girl with the strange gift of telling movies. When a film starring Marilyn Monroe, Gary Cooper, or Charlton Heston, or a Mexican feature packed with songs, arrives to the village, exact change for a ticket is collected at María’s house and she is sent to watch it.
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  • La mitad mejor
    Half lives
    Author:
    Marcos Herrera
    Publisher: 451 Editores
    Read report: La mitad mejor
    The fast-paced, hallucinatory lives of the outsiders in a city torn asunder by violence. A world populated by armed beggar children planning to seek revenge and get rich quick. A tramp who collects cardboard, involved in his own private, low-life crusade. Unruly prostitutes. Unimaginable drugs. A half journalist, half detective, who has been commissioned to solve three mysteries.
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  • La nit de les papallones
    The Night of the Butterflies
    Author:
    Jordi Coca
    Publisher: Edicions 62 S.A.
    Read report: La nit de les papallones
    La nit de les papallones is a novel that portrays the colourful Barcelona nightlife of the 1970s, and at its centre is Carla, a burlesque dancer who turns heads with her aesthetically dazzling and emancipated performances.
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  • La vida antes de marzo
    Life Before March
    Author:
    Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón
    Publisher: Editorial Anagrama S.A.
    Read report: La vida antes de marzo
    Two strangers meet on a train that has no specific origin or final destination. It is the year 2024 and two thousand wagons make up this enormous iron serpent. The journey between Bagdad and Lisbon is a long one, but the train doesn’t stop to pick up or drop off passengers.
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