Camellia Street - Softcover

Rodoreda, Mercè

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1940953863 ISBN 13: 9781940953861

Publisher: Open Letter, 2018

Synopsis

A major work from Mercè Rodoreda’s early, realistic period, Camellia Street is set in war-torn Barcelona of the 1940s and 50s and tells the story of Cecilia, who, abandoned as an infant, ends up fleeing her adoptive family in favor of a more unsettled life of fire-setting, poverty, one abusive man after another, prostitution, and, eventually, a tenuous note of rebirth. Building on the themes of The Time of the Doves, Rodoreda uses Cecilia’s difficult life to explore the strength of one woman in the face of male brutality. A classic work of feminist fiction that’s as charged today as when it was first published in Catalan back in 1966.

About this title

About the Author:

Mercè 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.

David Rosenthal wrote mostly about jazz music and was one of the most influential translators of Catalan in the twentieth century. Along with a number of the works of Mercè Rodoreda, he translated Tirant Lo Blanch, a book Cervantes believed was one of the best ever.

Sandra Cisneros is a Mexican-American writer of more than ten books, including The House on Mango Street.

Review:

”It is a total mystery to me why [Rodoreda] isn’t widely worshipped; along with Willa Cather, she’s on my list of authors whose works I intend to have read all of before I die. Tremendous, tremendous writer.”—John Darnielle, The Mountain Goats

”When you read this book, 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, NPR

"Mercè Rodoreda has been a favorite of mine ever since college. . . . War, So Much War helps to expand our understanding of a world-class writer's fiction, with, hopefully more to come."—Jeff VanderMeer, author of The Southern Reach Trilogy

"Episodic in style, [Rodoreda's] language is breathtaking and transportive, ultimately showing the reader the universal beauty and injustice of fate. . . . An incredibly original work and not to be missed."—Mark Haber, Brazos Bookstore

About this edition

• Publisher: Open Letter
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1940953863
• ISBN 13: 9781940953861
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 186