Stone in a Landslide by Maria Barbal

October 21, 2018 by Christina

Fiction — Kindle edition. Translated from the Catalan by Laura McGloughlin and Paul Mitchell. Peirene Press, 2011. Originally published 1985. 128 pgs. Library copy. In the nineteenth century, thirteen-year-old Concepció — known as Conxa to her family — is sent to live with her childless aunt and uncle among the foothills of the Catalan Pyrenees because her parents have too many children to feed. And Conxa’s position as the youngest girl makes her all the more of a burden to her […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Catalan, Europe, Fiction, Peirene Press, Translated • Tags: Laura McGloughlin, Maria Barbal, Paul Mitchell

The Violin of Auschwitz by Maria Àngels Anglada

January 5, 2011 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the Catalan by Martha Tennet. Bantam, 2010. Originally published 1994. 109 pgs. Library copy. In the winter of 1991, at a concert in Krakow, an older woman with a marvelously pitched violin meets a fellow musician who is instantly captivated by her instrument. The story then switches from diary format to a narrative tale about a man named Daniel, a Jewish violin maker imprisoned in Auschwitz, and how the violin in question comes into being. […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Catalan, Europe, Fiction, Genocide, Holocaust, Translated • Tags: Maria Àngels Anglada