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Death in Spring

By Merce Rodoreda
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3.75 goodreads logo

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Check link for latest rating. ( 3,658 ratings, 700 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
In Death in Spring, a haunting novel unfolds in a small village governed by surreal and oppressive customs. The protagonist, a young boy, navigates through a world filled with rituals and enigmatic rules. As he grows, he confronts the stifling traditions and uncovers dark secrets, all while grappling with themes of identity, mortality, and resistance.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$4500

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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you are intrigued by lyrical prose and haunting storytelling that explore themes of life, death, and the human condition. Set in a mythical village with deeply rooted traditions, its vivid imagery and allegorical narrative may captivate readers who appreciate thought-provoking and surreal tales.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Lushly surreal, Rodoreda's masterpiece is a mythological depiction of a city ruled by rituals-almost like Franco's Spain.

Featured on NPR's "You Must Read This" where it was recommended by Jesmyn Ward. Favorite book of John Darnielle, the man behind The Mountain Goats. Available for the first time in paperback, we will send copies to approximately 50 bookstores and Open Letter fans in order to drum up some new interest. Also will promote via an email campaign to professors who have been teaching Rodoreda and the paper-over-board version of this title.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Lushly surreal, Rodoreda's masterpiece is a mythological depiction of a city ruled by rituals, almost like Franco's Spain. Death in Spring tells the story of the bizarre and destructive customs of a nameless town—burying the dead in trees after filling their mouths with cement to prevent their soul from escaping, or sending a man to swim in the river that courses underneath the town—through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old boy who must come to terms with the rhyme and reason of this ritual violence, and with his wild, child-like and teenaged stepmother.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Death in Spring by Mercè Rodoreda is a haunting, surreal novel that skilfully incorporates magical realism to explore themes of decay and rebirth, set against the backdrop of a small town with strange customs. The richness of Rodoreda's prose, beautifully translated by Martha Tennent, contrasts with the novel's bleakness, creating an evocative and unsettling atmosphere. Through the protagonist's journey to manhood, the story delves into themes of tradition, exile, and the unnerving presence of tyranny, making it a compelling and lingering read.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781940953281

Publisher: Open Letter

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 October 2015

Country: United States

Imprint: Open Letter

Contributors:

  • Translated by Martha Tennent

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 218.0mm

Weight: 224g

Pages: 156

Collections

Fiction Fiction in Translation General Fiction Literary Fiction Merce Rodoreda

About the Author

Merce Rodoreda is widely regarded as the most important Catalan writer of the twentieth century. Exiled to France during the Spanish Civil War, and only able to return to Catalonia in the mid-1960s, she wrote a number of highly praised works, including The Time of the Doves and Death in Spring.

Martha Tennent was born in the U.S, but has lived most of her life in Barcelona where she served as founding dean of the School of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Vic. She translates from Spanish and Catalan, and received an NEA Translation Fellowship for her work on Rodoreda.

Also by Merce Rodoreda

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  • Journeys and Flowers
    A traveller embarks on a search for what lies beneath reality and finds villages where the dead walk at solstice, silkworm-like women live in cocoons, and a thousand men in gleaming armour play at being soldiers. Thirty-eight stories of invented flowers follow: absurd, lush, and dreamlike, they capture different truths of humanity. Journeys and Flowers by Mercè Rodoreda, in these...
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    'A small masterpiece' COLM TOIBIN, DAILY TELEGRAPH 'The most beautiful novel published in Spain since the Civil War' GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ 'Rodoreda's writing pays such fierce and tender attention to the experience of being alive, and the tempest that ordinary life can be' HELEN OYEYEMI When we were all alone, and everyone was in bed and the streets empty, he...
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