The wonders

BOOK REVIEW

THE WONDERS

Author: Elena Medel From the reader report by: Kazumi Uno

Many works of literature in Japan and other countries communicate the voices of ordinary woman. However, works translated from Spanish are extremely rare. This long-awaited book finally fills this gap. Within a year of release, the translation rights were sold for 11 different languages in countries like the UK, US and France. This testifies to the universal appeal of this tale about women living in contemporary Spain.

Though the two protagonists of the book meet understanding partners, they still need to carefully consider their own roles in life and how to live without contributing to the current system of male dominance. The book cast doubts on the pre-existing concepts of female happiness and it strikes a contemporary tone by showing the protagonists forging their own paths while overcoming loneliness.

Medel is also a poet and her writing has a warm, clear, emotional persuasiveness that doesn’t feel polemical or overly sentimental. The protagonists don’t have monumental or glorious careers; they are ordinary people, but the book still pulls readers into their lives. It will definitely appeal to Japanese readers too.

PUBLISHED IN NEW SPANISH BOOKS DE

PONTAS COPYRIGHT AGENCY

Title THE WONDERS LAS MARAVILLAS

Author Elena Medel Genre Literature Pages 228

ISBN 978-84339-990-85 Year of publication 2020 Number of editions 3 Language Spanish Spanish retail price 17.90 €

Author’s biography: Elena Medel was born in Cordoba in 1985 although she now lives in Madrid. She is the author of several collections of poetry Mi primer bikini (My first bikini, DVD, 2002; translated into English and Swedish), Tara (DVD, 2006) and Chatterton (Visor, 2014), brought together in the book Un día negro en una casa de mentira (A black day in a house of lies, Visor, 2015). She has also published essays, including El mundo mago (The magical world, Ariel, 2015) and Todo lo que hay que saber sobre poesía (All there is to know about poetry, Ariel, 2018) and she is editor in chief at the poetry publishing house, La Bella Varsovia. Among her many awards, she received the 26th Loewe prize for young creation and the 2016 Princess of Girona foundation prize in the category of arts and letters. The Wonders is her first novel. www.elenamedel.com

Synopsis: What weight do we give to family in your lives? What weight do we give money in your lives? Would we have turned out different if we’d been born somewhere else, in another time, in another body? In this novel there are two women: María, who leaves her life in a city in southern Spain to work in Madrid, and Alicia, who more than thirty years later takes the same path. The Wonders is a novel about money, and about the lack of money, about how the money we don’t have defines us. It is also a novel about caring for others, responsibilities, and expectations; about an insecurity that is less about the crises of life and more about class, and about which we hear stories that allow us to understand our origins and past. The Wonders is a lyrical and honest portrait told from the outskirts of a great city, through the voices – and bodies – of two working women.

Publisher: Pontas Agency International literary agency based in Barcelona.

Publishing rights available from: Pontas Copyright Agency S.L.- CIF B61730206 Apartado postal # 11 E-08183, Castellterçol, Barcelona www.pontas-agency.com Contact: Maria Cardona [maria@pontas-agency.com] Phone: (+34) 934 928 244

Countries where the rights have been sold: Holland: Meridiaan Uitgevers; Czech republic: Host; UK and Candada: Pushkin Press; USA: Algonquin; France: La Croissé; Germany: Suhrkamp; Greece: Patakis: Italy: Einaudi.

Reviews and prizes: Longlisted for the FINESTRES Prize for Spanish novels, 2020.