It is often said that in any crisis, the book sector is usually one of the last affected. For this reason, in this unleashed economic inflation, the publishing industry continues to maintain the type and joy demonstrated and ratified in recent months when it was crowned as one of the cultural industries least affected by the pandemic. Rather, it would seem that the impossibility of socialization imposed by the covid gave wings to reading to the joy of all book agents. How long will this last? Surely optimism will deflate in the first months of this new year loaded with uncertainties but as they say while there is dancing, let’s dance. As long as there are books, and good books, which is what the publishers propose, we will continue reading. These are the works that well-informed readers should not miss.
Against all odds
Surely, ‘Victory City’, Salman Rushdie’s new novel (Random House / Edicions 62), which will appear in March, will be one of the most sought-after reading hunting pieces. Three days before suffering the attack that almost cost him his life, the Anglo-Indian novelist living in the United States unveiled the cover of this novel that will appear in English in February, tragically renewing market interest. The book will come with ‘The language of truth’ (Seix Barral), the collection of articles with which the author investigates the great names of Anglo-Saxon literature and reflects -for reasons he has- on those antagonistic forces that are censorship and freedom of expression. Also from the United States and in Random House arrive ‘The Harlem Rhythm’, the latest novel by African-American Colson Whitehead and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, set in New York in the 1960s. Another Briton transplanted to New York like Douglas Stuart – who seduced us with the ‘Shuggie Bain Story’- brings ‘A place for Mungo’ (Random House / 1984), of similar coordinates -LGBTBIQ+ training novel-, while the disturbing Ottessa Moshfegh will put together a singular dystopia with ‘lapvona‘ (Alfaguara / Angle). Without forgetting John Banville, one of the writers who most deserves the Nobel Prize, who with ‘The singularities’ (Alfaguara) recovers his old fondness for the history of science seasoned with drops of ‘thriller’. And when it comes to the classics, nothing better than diving into the most popular and accessible of the novels of the Henry James complex, ‘Washington Square’ (Alba), which gave rise to the William Wyler film, ‘The Heiress’.
France hits hard
To Annie Ernaux’s latest novel, ‘the young man‘, in which she recounts her love story with a man 30 years younger than she joins ‘Writing as a knife’, in which the Nobel laureate offers to be interviewed by Fréderic-Yves Jeannet. Along with these books by Cabaret Voltaire (Angle in Catalan) is also located ‘Watch us dance’ in which the French Leila Slimani continues her familiar fresco started by ‘El país de los otros’. They have a French accent too ‘the wide world’ (Salamander), the first installment of a new historical cycle by Pierre Lemaitre, this time with Gallic colonialism in Indochina as a backdrop and ‘An honorable departure’ (Tusquets / Edicions 62) by the great Éric Vuillard, also located in subjugated Indochina. Without forget ‘Love the sea’ of the exquisite Pascal Quignard (Galaxy Gutenberg). And to degrease nothing better than the illustrated novel ‘The bike workshop‘, masterpiece of Sempé (Blackie Books).
Consolidated and veterans
A new book by Fernando Aramburu is always an event in bookstores: with ‘Sons of the fable’ (Tusquets) returns to the theme of terrorism but this time in a satirical key. Ignacio Martínez de Pisón, master of realism, is always a sure value in bookstores. ‘castles of fire’ (Seix Barral) is his particular look at the collateral damage of the post-civil war in a hopeless Madrid. He also looks back on Álvaro Pombo, whom the years and affections have not stopped. In ‘Santander, 1936’ (Anagram) uses his own upbringing as a gay boy in repressed times to put together a curious and false autofiction. Surely Miguel Ángel Hernández will hit the target with ‘Anoxia’ (Anagrama) about a photographer commissioned to take portraits of the deceased and particularly curious is -especially in these times of broken hearts- the novel ‘The genius’ by Jaime Bayly (Galaxia Gutenberg) in which he recreates the friendship between Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel García Márquez broken by a punch.
They, for their part, bring good expectations. Edurne Portela recovers andn ‘Maddi and the borders’ (Galaxia Gutenberg) the historical figure of María Josefa Sansberro, a paragon of contradictions who was capable of serving the Nazis and acting as a member of the Resistance. The Venezuelan based in Madrid Karina Sainz Borgo signs up for ‘The Island of Doctor Schubert’ (Lumen) to the adventure novel. While Elvira Navarro builds in ‘Adriana’s voices’ (Random House) a reflection on mourning and the ghostly time in which we live.
In Catalan
The collection of letters in Catalan is particularly good. There will be the haunting ‘Prophecy’ by Raül Garrigasait (1984) and the no less disturbing, although the context is much more realistic, ‘winner’, by Joan Jordi Miralles (Males Herbes), a portrait of a 13-year-old boy’s training at Barça’s Masia. But above all, coveted authors such as Marta Orriols stand out, who in ‘The possibility of living at home’ (Proa) will present a female portrait in contrast to her past and the difficulty of fitting into the present. Imma Monsó has set ‘The teacher and the beast’ (Anagrama) in the dark years of Francoism and Ada Castells explores in ‘Solastalgia’ (L’Altra) that type of stress linked to environmental deterioration. Without forgetting safe values like Ferran Torrent (‘Memories of my mateix’, Column), Marius Serra (‘The painted month donut’Proa) or the converted Gerard Quintana (‘The purity of l’engany’. Editions 62).
black and criminal
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Police genre lovers are in luck thanks to ‘Desert Star’ (AdN) by Michael Connelly and a new but twilight story by Harry Bosch, which we hope is not the last. but also with ‘Eclipse’ by Jo Nesbo (Reservoir Books / Proa), which has spent four years fallow, to the despair of its fans and is now back with the thirteenth Harry Hole adventure. Of absolute masterpiece describe ‘The time of the flies’ by Claudia Piñeiro, who has been a Booker finalist in 2022, no less. To round off the harvest we should mention ‘Make game’ by Antonio Mazzini (Salamander) and ‘Only darkness’, the novel that, after his death, William McIlvanney (Salamander) left unfinished and finished off by his friend Ian Rankin, without forgetting the recovery of ‘The Sniper’ (RBA), by the long-awaited Philip Kerr.
The other side of fiction
Although the borders of what is fiction and what is not tend to be confused in recent times, it will be good to take a look at the realm of reality. It is the case of ‘A job for life’ (Asteroid) in which the Canadian Rachel Cusk mercilessly explores all the intricacies of motherhood. In that same feminist perspective she finds herself ‘Whose story is this?’ (Debate) by Rebecca Solnit, who claims the need to control a story that others have always written for women. The desire to think about the moment has led Paul Auster to ‘A country bathed in blood’ (Seix Barral / Edicions 62) to address one of the issues that most divides the already polarized North American society today: the ‘right’ to bear arms, while the controversial philosopher Slavoj Zizek with ‘The incontinence of the vacuum’ and the famous Byung-Chul Han with ‘contemplative life’ They advocate new perspectives on the present. ‘A barbarian in Paris’ (Alfaguara), by today’s bachelor Vargas Llosa, collects his articles on French literature and ‘Don’t shut up’ (Tusquets) the journalists of Javier Cercas. Lastly, don’t forget ‘Meditations on cinema’ (Reservoir Books / Column) by Quentin Tarantino