The Angel’s Game Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Original, gripping, exciting, atmospheric – but also baffling and infuriating: the follow-up to The Shadow of the Wind is actually a prequel, set in Barcelona in the 1920s.
For more pictures of Calle Flassaders and old Barcelona, see our blog.
Our Barcelona correspondent reports that there is no tower house on Calle Flassaders
The city and its mysteries are vividly brought to life in a Gothic tale in which the nature of storytelling and religious faith are woven into the (possibly unreliable) narrative.
This is the fastest-selling book in Spanish publishing history.
The Other Side of the Bridge Mary Lawson
A Canadian now living in London, Mary Lawson deserves to be better-known in the UK. Her first novel Crow Lake was a success around the world: The Other Side of the Bridge was long-listed for the Booker Prize. Sibling rivalry in 1930s Canada is interwoven with a more recent narrative of the same rural community until the two stories become one. The beauty and subtlety of the writing are hard to explain: farming life, the impact of the second World War, friendship, progress and above all the complexities of human relationships are described in delicate, unfussy prose. It’s a wonderful book.
Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day Winifred Watson
This neglected treasure had been long out of print when Persephone Books produced a new edition in 2000. Guinevere Pettigrew is a down-trodden agency governess in 1930s London. Sent to the wrong address one day, she finds herself involved in the glamorous but complicated life of a night-club singer and rises to the occasion in a quite unexpected way. The book is warm, funny and delightful.