Death in Spring
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Mercè Rodoreda
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Martha Tennent (Translator)
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Colm Tóibín (Introducer)
'Soaringly beautiful, urgent and disturbing... A masterpiece.' Colm Tóibín, from the introduction
'Dark and beautiful and brilliant' Sarah Moss, author of Ghost Wall
Death in Spring is a dark and dream-like tale of a teenage boy's coming of age in a remote village in the Catalan mountains; a place cut off from the outside world, where cruel customs are blindly followed, and attempts at rebellion swiftly crushed. When his father dies, he must navigate this oppressive society alone, and learn how to live in a place of crippling conformity.
Often seen as an allegory for life under a dictatorship, Death in Spring is a bewitching and unsettling novel about power, exile, and the hope that comes from even the smallest gestures of independence.
'Rodoreda has bedazzled me' Gabriel Garcia Marquez
'Rodoreda's artistry is of the highest order' Diana Athill
'Read it for its beauty, for the way it will surprise and subvert your desires, and as a testament to the human spirit in the face of brutality and willful inhumanity.' Jesmyn Ward, author of Sing, Unburied, Sing
'Utterly extraordinary' Claire-Louise Bennett, author of Pond
'Dark and beautiful and brilliant' Sarah Moss, author of The Tidal Zone
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Imprint: Penguin
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Published: 05/04/2018
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ISBN: 9780241352557
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Length: 160 Pages
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RRP: £8.99
Reviews
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Soaringly beautiful, urgent and disturbing... A masterpiece
Colm Tóibín, from the introduction
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Mercè Rodoreda's artistry is of the highest order
Diana Athill
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Rodoreda has bedazzled me
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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Read it for its beauty, for the way it will surprise and subvert your desires, and as a testament to the human spirit in the face of brutality and willful inhumanity
Jesmyn Ward, author of 'Sing, Unburied, Sing', NPR
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Utterly extraordinary - I have had few reading experiences like it - it's as if one is unravelling a terrible yet irresistible secret, the secret of death
Claire-Louise Bennett, author of 'Pond'
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The greatest contemporary Catalan novelist and possibly the best Mediterranean woman author since Sappho
David H Rosenthal
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A heartbreaking, unforgettable read. One of the most important literary works from the second half of the 20th century
El Cultural
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It is a total mystery to me why [Rodoreda] isn't widely worshipped. . . . She's on my list of authors whose works I intend to have read all of before I die. Tremendous, tremendous writer
John Darnielle, author of 'Wolf in White Van'
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One of the most radical works from the past century
El Pais
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The novel is suspenseful, pushing the reader through the images, memories, and voices that flow within the protagonist's often confused mind as he develops into manhood. Just as the unnamed protagonist must navigate a world of contradictions, the novel reflects Rodoreda's own political, social, and literary exile while speaking of a tyranny that feels almost uncanny in its incantation
Bomb Magazine
