Margaret Jull Costa

A Dickensian tale of ambition, family, and financial ruin by the most important Spanish novelist after Cervantes, this tragicomic novel about a patriarch struggling to keep his ungrateful family from ruin is at turns scathing and hilarious. Ram n Villaamil has been a loyal civil servant his whole life, but a change in government leaves him out of a job and still two months short of qualifying for his pension. Initially optimistic that he'll be able to find work and pull his family out of their financial straits, he spends his days visiting the Administration, pestering his ex-colleagues to put in a good word for him, and begging his friends in high places for money. At home, Villaamil's wife, daughter, and sister-in-law--whose feline appearances earn them the nickname "the Miaows"--are unimpressed by Villaamil's failures, and the only joy left in Villaamil's life is his young grandson Luis. When Luis's disgraced father, the handsome and dastardly V ctor Cadalso reappears in their lives with promises of easing their financial burdens, Villaamil has no choice but to allow him back into their midst, even as he knows there is nothing pure about V ctor's intentions, and that his return could bring them all to ruin. Comparable to the best of Balzac and Dickens, Benito P rez Gald s's satire of lower middle-class life offers a scathing critique of the hypocrisy and corruption within nineteenth-century Spanish society as well as a potent exploration of the value of human life outside of work. Margaret Jull Costa's inimitable translation captures all the tragicomic vitality of P rez Gald s's prose, and proves that he is indeed "the best Spanish writer of the nineteenth century" (Mario Vargas Llosa).

BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 ACCORDING TO GUARDIAN AND THE SPECTATOR The final novel from one of the greatest writers of the past half century'No-one nowadays writes prose like Javier Marías . . . If you're already a fan, you'll know what to expect and rejoice. If you're not, what a treat you have in store' The HeraldTomás Nevinson, a retired MI6 agent, is working for the British Embassy in Madrid when his former handler, the sinister Bertram Tupra, offers to bring him back inside for one last assignment. His mission: to catch and, if necessary, kill a terrorist gone to ground in Northern Spain after bombings in Barcelona and Zaragoza. The trouble is there are three suspects – all women – and it may not actually be any of them. To find out, Nevinson must move incognito to the small town where the three women separately live, and become an intimate friend to each, in the hope of uncovering a clue . . .A philosophical thriller with a climate of suspense to rival le Carré and a psychological depth that is purely Marias’s own, this is a novel that explores the deepest of human questions: in what circumstances can killing be called just?Translated by Margaret Jull Costa'The last word from a master . . . once you've been inside Marías' world, to spend too long outside is unbearable' The Sunday Times'A twisting espionage tale shot through with slantwise humour . . . seductive and inescapably poignant' Observer

With the grand sweep of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, this enduring tale transports us to a picturesque seaside town haunted by its colonial past. Considered one of Europe’s most influential contemporary writers, Portuguese novelist Lídia Jorge has captivated international audiences for decades. With the publication of The Wind Whistling in the Cranes, English-speaking readers can now experience the thrum of her signature poetic style and her delicately braided multi-character plotlines and witness the heroic journey of one of the most maddening, and endearing, characters in literary fiction. Exquisitely translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Annie McDermott, this breathtaking saga, set in the now-distant 1990s, tells the story of the landlords and tenants of a derelict canning factory in southern Portugal. The wealthy, always-scheming Leandros have owned the building since before the Carnation Revolution. It was Leandro matriarch, Dona Regina, who handed the keys to the Matas, the bustling family from Cape Verde who saw past the dusty machinery and converted the space into a warm—and welcoming—home. When Dona Regina is found dead outside the factory on a holiday weekend, her body covered in black ants, her granddaughter, Milene, investigates. Aware that her aunts and uncles, who are on holiday, will berate her inability to articulate what has just happened, she approaches the factory riddled with anxiety. Hours later, the Matas return home to find this strange girl hiding behind their clotheslines and with caution, they take her in. Days later, the Leandros realise that Milene has become hopelessly entangled with their tenants, and their fear of political and financial ruin sets off a series of events that threatens to uproot the lives of everyone involved. Narrated with passionate, incandescent prose, The Wind Whistling in the Cranes establishes Lídia Jorge as a novelist of extraordinary international resonance.

The unlikely hero of His Only Son, Bonifacio Reyes, is a romantic and a flautist by vocation and a failed clerk and kept husband by necessity who dreams of a novelesque life. Tied to his shrill and sickly wife by her purse strings, he enters timidly into a love affair with Serafina, a seductive second-rate opera singer, encouraged by her manager who mistakes Bonifacio for a potential patron. Meanwhile, Bonifacio s wife experiences a parallel awakening and in the midst of a long-barren marriage, surprises them both with a son but is it Bonifacio s? In the accompanying novella, Dona Berta, the heroine of the title, an aged, poor, but well-born woman, forfeits her beloved estate in search of a portrait that may be all that remains of the secret love of her life. While largely unknown outside of Spain, Leopoldo Alas was one of the most celebrated writers of criticism in nineteenth-century Spain and employed his satirical talents to powerful and humorous effect in fiction. His Only Son was Alas s second and final novel, full of characteristic humor, naturalistic detail, descriptive beauty, and moral complexity. His frail and pitiful characters irrational, emotional actors drawn inexorably toward their foolish fates are yet multidimensional individuals, often conscious of their own weaknesses and stymied by their very yearnings to be more than the parts they find themselves playing."

"The inklings of Saramago's style swell throughout . . . Skylight shines." -- New York Times "Unmistakably Saramago . . . There is no shortage of wonders to be found in Skylight]." -- Washington Post "A fascinating and startlingly mature work . . . The book is a gem." -- Boston Globe Lisbon, late 1940s. The inhabitants of a faded apartment building are struggling to make ends meet: Silvio the cobbler and his wife take in a disaffected young lodger; Dona L dia, a retired prostitute, is kept by a businessman with a roving eye. Humble salesman Emilio's Spanish wife is in a permanent rage; beautiful Claudinha's boss lusts for her; Justina and her womanizer husband live at war with each other. Happy marriages, abusive relationships, jealousy, gossip, love--Skylight is a portrait of ordinary people painted by the master of the quotidian, a great observer of the immense beauty and profound hardship of the modern world. "The gifted young Saramago makes these characters click together in a way that's extremely sympathetic." -- NPR, All Things Considered "It was only a matter of time before a work of such extraordinary honesty and perception would make its way into the world." -- San Francisco Chronicle

Part spy novel, part romance, part Henry James, Your Face Tomorrow is a wholly remarkable display of the immense gifts of Javier Marias. With Fever and Spear, Volume One of his unfolding novel Your Face Tomorrow, he returns us to the rarified world of Oxford (the delightful setting of All Souls and Dark Back of Time), while introducing us to territory entirely new--espionage. Our hero, Jaime Deza, separated from his wife in Madrid, is a bit adrift in London until his old friend Sir Peter Wheeler--retired Oxford don and semi-retired master spy--recruits him for a new career in British Intelligence. Deza possesses a rare gift for seeing behind the masks people wear. He is soon observing interviews conducted by Her Majesty's secret service: variously shady international businessmen one day, would-be coup leaders the next. Seductively, this metaphysical thriller explores past, present, and future in the ever-more-perilous 21st century. This compelling and enigmatic tour de force from one of Europe's greatest writers continues with Volume Two, Dance and Dream.