Contemporary Spanish Literature Recommendations

Helping people meet books they’ll love is one of the purposes of my life, so I’m happy to write this in response to a reader request for recommendations of entertaining reading in Spanish.

1. First of all, everybody needs to read Isaac Rosa’s Feliz final. It’s a sort of an anatomy of a marriage. A couple is getting divorced and starts tracing their relationship backwards to see where it all went wrong. If you are into relationship minutiae plus you like Zygmunt Bauman, you’ll be in paradise. I know I was.

2. Alicia Giménez Bartlett wrote detective novels but she also wrote a very original, excellent Spanish Civil War novel Donde nadie te encuentre. It’s a story of a very unusual, fascinating guerrilla fighter. Based on true events! Very good.

3. For readers who enjoyed María Dueñas’s Tiempo entre costuras, I highly recommend Julia Navarro’s Dime quién soy. Spanish Civil War, WWII, fascinating adventures. Very long but reads fast.

4. Of course, Civil War adventures abound in the series titled Episodios de una guerra interminable by the recently deceased Almudena Grandes. The best in the series are Inés y la alegría and Tres bodas de Manolita.

5. Going back to family drama, Luis Landero’s Lluvia fina is excellent. It’s also becoming clear that I’m stuck between family sagas and civil war doorstoppers.

6. And I just have to mention Sara Mesa’s Cicatriz because it’s about a guy who expresses his love for a young woman by sending her books. Many books. Just that alone makes it worth reading. But honestly, anything by Sara Mesa is worth reading. She’s very good. Her Un amor – about an antisocial translator falling in love with an even more antisocial topographer – is incredible.

7. And for people who love funny stuff, Daniel Gascón’s hipster novels, about a well-meaning hipster trying to bring progress to the countryside, are a barrel of laughs.

8. And the pinnacle of Spanish entertainment literature in my opinion is Ignacio Martínez de Pisón. He’s written a lot, and it’s all gossipy, enjoyable, and I’m sorry, I got to go read something right now because all this talk about books makes me want to read up a storm. But before I go, I just have to mention

9. Patria by Fernando Aramburu. Families riven apart by Basque terrorism! Very easy to read, a mega bestseller because the story is super touching.

Happy reading, everybody!