An indisputable criterion of success for any novelist is when Penguin Modern Classics signs up your backlist, especially when it’s for a five-figure sum. Which is what has happened to Javier Marías. The 60-year-old Spanish writer, whose latest title, The Infatuations (Los enamoramientos), will be published in English in early 2013, joins an exclusive group of Spanish writers in Penguin’s catalogue: Cervantes, Quevedo, Jacinto Benavente, and Lorca. Yes, that’s it. Four writers: the first two of whom died in the 17th century, the next in 1954; although he stopped writing long before that. For Penguin, and most US and UK publishers, it seems that, until now, Spanish literature ended with the … [Read more...] about Spain’s literary giants are lost in English translation
LORCA
Gibson’s undimmed passion for Lorca
I first met Ian Gibson in 2004. While walking through the Madrid barrio of Lavapiés, I had spotted a face that I remembered from the book flap of his biography of Federico García Lorca. Like a weak-kneed groupie, I followed him into a bar and confessed I was a fan of the biography as well as his exploration of the events that led up to Lorca’s death, El asesinato de García Lorca. Gibson, who lived in the area, graciously invited me to sit down and have a drink and I spent 10 hurried minutes with him. Seven years on, I meet Gibson at the same bar (his choice), but this time the interview has been arranged by phone and it coincides with a new edition of his Lorca biography in Spanish, … [Read more...] about Gibson’s undimmed passion for Lorca
Spain’s cajas bank on reform
Topping off a couple of months of frenetic activity intended to guarantee the future of the Spanish cajas de ahorros were three events at the end of July. Their chronological order is important: 1) July 21 - the approval by Congress of the LORCA, the new legislation governing the cajas which includes mechanisms allowing these savings banks to sell equity shares in themselves. 2) July 23 - the announcement on the part of Banca Cívica (the fruit of a partial merger of Caja Navarra, CajaCanarias and Caja de Burgos) that they would be availing themselves of this opportunity by signing a letter of intent with the very large and high profile American investment fund, JC Flowers & Co. The … [Read more...] about Spain’s cajas bank on reform