Panels are formed by five or six industry experts, among them publishers, translators, academics, critics and booksellers. Panellists change every edition to allow as many people as possible to be part of the project. The panel meets twice, and decisions are based on their knowledge, experience and intuition, as well as on readers´ reports commissioned by this office to readers previously selected. Members of the panel reach their decisions with complete independence.
The panel for the 2019 edition was formed by Ka Bradley (editor at Granta Books), Nick Caistor (translator from Spanish, Portuguese and French), Ruth Clarke (translator from Spanish, Italian and French and a founding member of the Sterling Bureau), Maria Camila Correa (picture book author and editor at Little Tiger Press) and Julie Ward (co-owner of the children´s bookshop The Book Nook). The following people have translated book summaries or/and written reports for this issue: Anne McLean, Beth Fowler, Cristina Macsweeney, Hebe Powell, Isabelle Kaufeler, Laura McGloughlin, Miranda France, Peter Bush, Rahul Bery, Richard Mansell and Tim Gutteridge.
We greatly appreciate the work they have done in making this edition of New Spanish Books a great success, especially considering the current exceptional circumstances. Thank you!
A starkly real Madrid where the unexpected, and even the magical, can suddenly just happen. This is the space inhabited by the characters of this novel about Nikki and Sánchez, a couple of losers in search of an opportunity.
Two girls chatting on the phone while they wait for the guests. In the street shots and explosions are heard, until one day the television starts to speak to them, encouraging them to flee.
What if you received a letter you yourself had written, fifteen years ago? And if that letter showed you the place where some treasure had been buried?
Benjamin is a young sperm whale who lives near an island and loves to jump, sing and recite poetry. Benjamin wants to be like the dolphins who are the only ones who normally do this.
Food is a necessity and, at the same time, a pleasure that we encounter every day. But have you ever wondered where all those foods that appear on your table came from?
This is a work that, without complexes or affectation, approaches the prickly, multifaceted, grim and authentic reality of women in Cuba with all their casuistries and possibilities. No added sweeteners.
Having a brother is very annoying! He's like a monkey, always clowning about. Having a sister is a pain in the neck! Everything I do is wrong and she won't let me play the way I want to.
What do dogs dream about? Maybe looking like their owners? Having fleas and being able to make fire?
A hair is not the strangest thing you might find in your soup. A fly is not the strangest thing you might find in your soup. Do you know what it would be really strange to find in your soup? "A surreal and delicious entertainment."
The "false calm" referred to in the title is Patagonia, an immense cold, ghostly region in which time seems to have come to a permanent halt.