Description

‘Soaringly beautiful, urgent and disturbing… A masterpiece.’ Colm Toibin, from the introduction

‘Dark and beautiful and brilliant’ Sarah Moss, author of Ghost Wall

Death in Spring is a dark and dream-like tale of a teenage boy’s coming of age in a remote village in the Catalan mountains; a place cut off from the outside world, where cruel customs are blindly followed, and attempts at rebellion swiftly crushed. When his father dies, he must navigate this oppressive society alone, and learn how to live in a place of crippling conformity.

Often seen as an allegory for life under a dictatorship, Death in Spring is a bewitching and unsettling novel about power, exile, and the hope that comes from even the smallest gestures of independence.

‘Rodoreda has bedazzled me’ Gabriel Garcia Marquez

‘Rodoreda’s artistry is of the highest order’ Diana Athill

‘Read it for its beauty, for the way it will surprise and subvert your desires, and as a testament to the human spirit in the face of brutality and willful inhumanity.’ Jesmyn Ward, author of Sing, Unburied, Sing

‘Utterly extraordinary’ Claire-Louise Bennett, author of Pond

Publisher Review

Soaringly beautiful, urgent and disturbing... A masterpiece -- Colm Toibin, from the introduction Merce Rodoreda's artistry is of the highest order -- Diana Athill Dark and beautiful and brilliant -- Sarah Moss Rodoreda has bedazzled me -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez Read it for its beauty, for the way it will surprise and subvert your desires, and as a testament to the human spirit in the face of brutality and willful inhumanity -- Jesmyn Ward, author of 'Sing, Unburied, Sing' * NPR * Utterly extraordinary - I have had few reading experiences like it - it's as if one is unravelling a terrible yet irresistible secret, the secret of death -- Claire-Louise Bennett, author of 'Pond' The greatest contemporary Catalan novelist and possibly the best Mediterranean woman author since Sappho -- David H Rosenthal A heartbreaking, unforgettable read. One of the most important literary works from the second half of the 20th century * El Cultural * It is a total mystery to me why [Rodoreda] isn't widely worshipped. . . . She's on my list of authors whose works I intend to have read all of before I die. Tremendous, tremendous writer -- John Darnielle, author of 'Wolf in White Van' One of the most radical works from the past century * El Pais *