Uk Panel's Choice - Year 2013

Panels are usually formed by six industry experts, amongst which there are publishers, translators, critics, booksellers, and a permanent representative from the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT). Panelists change every edition to allow as many people as possible to be part of the project. The panel meets twice and decisions are based on their knowledge, experience and intuition, as well as on reader’s reports. Members of the panel take their decisions with total independence.

The 2013 Edition panel was formed by: Bill Swainson (Editor–Bloomsbury), Jason Cooper (Publisher- Faber&Faber), Jessica Graham(Primrose Hill Books), Lucy Popescu (Journalist), Nick Caistor (BCLT) and Thomas Bunstead (Translator). The following people have translated book summaries and/or written reports for this issue: Christina MacSweeney, Lucy Greaves, Margaret Jull Costa, Martin Schifino, Kit Maude, Peter Bush, Jennifer Arnold, Jessica Johannesson, Ana Fletcher and Catherine Mansfield.

A big thank you to all of them for their enthusiast and invaluable contribution to the 2013 Edition of New Spanish Books.

  • Cròniques de la veritat oculta
    Hidden Truth Chronicles
    Author:
    Pere Calders
    Publisher: Edicions 62 S.A.
    Hidden Truth Chronicles is a key work in Calders' writing and represents the discovery, for postwar readers, of an extraordinary storyteller. The author's humour and fantasy had, with the years, gained in intensity, depth and ambiguity, an ambiguity which always permeates fantastic literature, from Poe to Kafka, passing through Pirandello or Bontempelli.
    Read more
  • Diario a dos voces
    Diary in Two Voices
    Author:
    Manuel Lamana
    Publisher: EDITORIAL SEIX BARRAL, S.A.
    Spain, winter 1939. AMong the hundreds of thousand of people crossing the bordering seeking refuge in France, the Lamana family get separated, hoping to be reunited in the neighbouring country.
    Read more
  • El lago en las pupilas
    The Lake in Their Eyes
    Author:
    Luis Goytisolo
    Publisher: Ediciones Siruela, S.A.
    Investigating their respective family histories, Gloria and Marcel meet in Riofrío, a small mountain town which in the past was not spared the turmoil of civil war.
    Read more
  • Historia del dinero
    The Story of Money
    Author:
    Alan Pauls
    Publisher: Editorial Anagrama S.A.
    Argentina, the 1970s.The unions are overwhelmed by the radical left, and the CEO of a steel plant dies after falling from the helicopter he was travelling in. The briefcase full of money he had with him disappears without trace. The theories about his death are multiplying, as are those on what the money was for. Doing business with union reps? Corrupting them?
    Read more
  • La ciudad de los ojos grises
    The City of Grey Eyes
    Author:
    Felix G. Modroño
    Publisher: Algaida Editores
    After several years living in Paris, Alfredo Gastiasoro returns to Bilbao when he learns that Izarbe has died. His return is meant to be the last homage to the woman he loved, but it will become an investigation of the unsettling circumstances surrounding her death.
    Read more
  • LAS POSEÍDAS
    The Possessed
    Author:
    Betina González
    Publisher: TUSQUETS EDITORES, S.A.
    A new girl, Felisa Wilmer, joins a religious school for girls in the north of Buenos Aires. Recently arrived from London, Felisa becomes the centre of attention thanks to her rebellious attitude and bad behaviour, and her artistic tendencies, her perfect English and her impenetrable and independent character means that she is surrounded by a 'poetic' aura.
    Read more
  • Memoria de la inocente niña homicida
    Memoir of an innocent little murderess
    Author:
    Isabel Camblor
    Publisher: EDITORIAL PRE-TEXTOS
    23rd February, 1981. A village in Castille surrounded by mountains. Every Monday, seven-year-old Elena goes to her catechism class. One day she and her classmates are unexpectedly urged to leave the classroom and to go home as quickly as they can. A coup d'etat is happening in the country right then.
    Read more
  • Una família exemplar
    An exemplary family
    Author:
    Genís Sinca
    Publisher: Columna Edicions S.A.
    'Una familia ejemplar' is a hilarious satire, a tragicomedy that takes a look at the disproportionate ambition that sometimes makes reasonable people lose their heads, and also a searing critique of great family sagas.
    Read more