City of Wonders
Arriving in Barcelona in May 1887, with exactly enough money to pay for a week’s rent and board and not a peseta more, thirteen-year-old Onofre Bouvila has no choice but to accept the risky and illegal job that his landlord’s daughter arranges for him, delivering leaflets for the Anarchists. His literacy skills are not up to scratch, so he has no idea what he’s carrying; but there’s nothing wrong with his brain, and opportunities abound in this bustling city preparing for a World Fair. Step by step his career choices make him more and more money, and less and less honourable… By 1929, and Barcelona’s second World Fair, he is Don Bouvila, and controls a great deal of the mob. And then he falls in love, and must find a way to escape everything and start life again with his lady…
Eduardo Mendoza’s book is wonderfully evocative of 19th-century Barcelona—and indeed, tells us about the roots of the city, and the broader European and specific Spanish context in which it sits. By turns funny, fascinating, and occasionally gruesome, with richly detailed observation, this book reads like a highly entertaining combination of Dickens and Mervyn Peake. Written in Spanish, the work flows and engages; a tribute to the translation skills of Nick Caistor, as well as to the author. Even when Bouvila is at his worst, you have a sneaking regard for him; and you will cheer as he makes his highly risky disappearing attempt!
