Name: City of Wonders
Price: 32.02 NZD
Availability: InStock
Author: Eduardo Mendoza
ISBN: 9781529410082

Type

Physical Book

Author

Eduardo Mendoza

Publisher

Quercus Publishing

Year

2022

Language

English

Pages

496

Format

Paperback

ISBN13

9781529410082

Synopsis "City of Wonders"

Eduardo Mendoza's classic novel about the birth of Barcelona as a world city, embodied in the rise of the ambitious and unscrupulous Onofre Bouvila "Though historical in subject matter, this story of Catalonian enterprise and Barcelonan ambition is thoroughly contemporary in spirit" Jonathan Franzen Stung by the realisation that his father is a fraud and a failure, Onofre Bouvila leaves a life of rural poverty to seek his fortune in Barcelona. The year is 1888, and the Catalan capital is about to emerge from provincial obscurity to take its place amongst the great cities of the world, thanks to the upcoming Universal Exhibition. Thanks to a tip-off from his landlord's daughter, Onofre gets his big break distributing anarchist leaflets to workers preparing for the World Fair. From these humble beginnings, he branches out as a hair-tonic salesman, a burglar, a filmmaker, an arms smuggler and a political dealmaker, in a multifaceted career that brings him wealth and influence beyond his wildest dreams. But, just as Barcelona's rise makes it a haven for gangsters, crooks and spivs, vice begins to fester in Onofre's heart. And the climax to his remarkable story will come just as a second World Fair in 1929 marks the city's apotheosis. Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor

Eduardo Mendoza

(Author)

View Author's Page

He has published the novels The Truth About the Savolta Case (1975), which won the Critics' Award; The Mystery of the Haunted Crypt (1979); The Labyrinth of the Olives (1982); The City of Marvels (1986), City of Barcelona Award; The Unheard Island (1989); No News from Gurb (1991, 2011); The Year of the Flood (1992); A Light Comedy (1996), for which he won in Paris, in 1998, the Award for Best Foreign Book; The Adventure of the Ladies' Dresser (2001), Award for the "Book of the Year" by the Madrid Booksellers Guild; The Last Journey of Horacio Dos (2002); Mauricio or the Primary Elections (2006), José Manuel Lara Foundation Novel Award; The Amazing Journey of Pomponio Flato (2008), Terenci Moix Award and Silver Feather of the Bilbao Book Fair; and the book of stories Three Lives of Saints (2009), always at Seix Barral, and Catfight. Madrid 1936, a novel awarded with the Planeta Prize 2010.

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