Spain Writes, America Reads: A Luminous Republic by Andrés Barba

  • Literature
  • Online
  • Wed, May 05, 2021
  • 3:30 pm (EST)
Spain Writes, America Reads: A Luminous Republic by Andrés Barba

Author Andrés Barba presents “A Luminous Republic” at “Spain Writes, America Reads,” a series of virtual conversations to introduce recently translated books from Spain in the U.S.

This virtual author & translator dialogue will introduce American audiences to A Luminous Republic, the English edition of Andrés Barba’s award-winning República Luminosa, translated into English by Lisa Dillman, and published in the U.S. by HMH Books.

A Luminous Republic by Andrés Barba

San Cristóbal was an unremarkable city —small, newly prosperous, contained by rain forest and river. But then the children arrived. No one knew where they came from: thirty-two kids, seemingly born of the jungle, speaking an unknown language. At first they scavenged, stealing food and money and absconding to the trees. But their transgressions escalated to violence, and then the city’s own children began defecting to join them. Facing complete collapse, municipal forces embark on a hunt to find the kids before the city falls into irreparable chaos.

Narrated by the civil servant who led the hunt, A Luminous Republic is a suspenseful, anguished fable that “could be read as Lord of the Flies seen from the other side, but that would rob Barba of the profound originality of his world” (Juan Gabriel Vásquez).

About Andrés Barba

Andres Barba (Madrid, 1975) is the author of more than 15 books of literary fiction, essay, poetry and the winner of prizes like Torrente Ballester prize, Juan March, Anagrama or Herralde Prize for fiction. His books have been translated into 20 languages, and was selected by Granta magazine like one of the best young Spanish novelists. Among his titles, available in English, are: Such Small Hands (Transit Books), The Right Intention (Transit Books), Rain over Madrid (Hispabooks), August, October (Hispabooks) and A luminous Republic (Granta and Houtghton Mifflin Hartcourt). His last book, thanks to a fellowship at the Cullman Center of the New York Public Library, is a biography of the architect Rafael Guastavino.

About Lisa Dillman

Lisa Dillman has translated over thirty novels and teaches at Emory University. Some of her recent translations include The Bitch by Pilar Quintana (National Book Award finalist); Signs Preceding the End of the World (winner of the 2016 Best Translated Book Award) and A Silent Fury by Yuri Herrera; and Such Small Hands (winner of the 2018 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Award) and A Luminous Republic by Andrés Barba.

Order the book and watch all past presentations from Spain Writes, America Reads.

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Presented by the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in Washington, with the support of Politics and Prose Bookstore

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