Rodoreda, Mercè

Rodoreda is possibly the most important modern Catalan novelist, and this availability to English speakers corroborates that well-deserved reputation. Though the book was first published in 1967, its aesthetic and literary qualities still hold up well.

Rodoreda's clear, clean prose, rendered so capably into English by Relaño and Tennent, creates a mood of desperation that will engage the contemplative reader more than the casual one.