null

Recently Viewed

New

Ordesa by Manuel Vilas

No reviews yet Write a Review
RRP: £9.99
£6.70
Booksplease saves you

  Delivery: We ship to over 200 countries!
  Range: Millions of books available
  Reviews: Booksplease rated "Excellent" on Trustpilot

SKU:
9781786897343
Weight:
157.00 Grams
Available from Booksplease!
Availability: Usually dispatched within 6 working days

Frequently Bought Together:

Total: Inc. VAT
Total: Ex. VAT

Description

'A book of deep reckoning' New York Times
'Becomes a way of looking honestly at what mourning really feels like' Guardian

A man in tumult returns to Ordesa, the small mountain town where he was born, and where his parents have recently died. He sits down to write. Newly sober, his career on the wane, his relationship with his own children strained, what he produces is a dizzying chronicle of his childhood and an unsparing account of his life's trials, failures and triumphs. He reckons with the ghosts of his parents, the pain of loss and, as the pages fill with words, he tries to piece together the bits of himself. What is a person without a family? What is a person when faced with memories alone?

An autobiographical novel by a Spanish literary icon, written with the intimacy of a diary, Ordesa is a beautiful, redemptive meditation on identity, grief and the passing of time.



About the Author

Manuel Vilas was born in Spain in 1962. He is an award-winning poet and novelist. Ordesa has sold over 100,000 copies in Spain and has gone on to become a phenomenon across Europe, being translated into fifteen languages. Ordesa is the first of his works to be translated into English and was the winner of the Prix Femina etranger 2019. He currently resides in Madrid.

Andrea Rosenberg is a translator from Spanish and Portuguese. Her full-length translations include novels and graphic narratives by Tomas Gonzalez, Ines Pedrosa, Aura Xilonen, Juan Gomez Barcena, Paco Roca and Marcelo D'Salete. Two of her translations have won Eisner Awards, and she has been the recipient of awards and grants from the Fulbright Program, the American Literary Translators Association and the Banff International Literary Translation Centre.



Reviews
A meditation on yearning, solitude and family . . . A book of deep reckoning - of the meaningful and mundane - but written with an airy, even whimsical touch . . . Radiantly evokes both a golden age and its slow deterioration * * New York Times * *
Vilas paints an affecting portrait of a middle-aged man alone - divorced, estranged from his children, his parents deceased - and attempting to chronicle his childhood. A persistent sense of longing for that which is lost pervades the book, making it feel particularly fitting this year * * Vanity Fair * *
The narrator of this sober yet elegant autobiographical novel is a middle-aged man reckoning with his past and with his encroaching mortality. Painfully observant and poetically inclined * * New Yorker * *
Ordesa is a smack in the chops and a swim in the sea, a desolate memento mori and a warm, consoling hug . . . There is so much love in this book, for life and for language, that it bursts the seams even in translation. If you're remotely responsive to this, it will make a holy mess of you * * Herald * *
Vilas has written a book that is soaked through with humanity. An intimate, comforting, painful and deeply beautiful tour de force. He is an enhancer of life -- JAMES RHODES author of INSTRUMENTAL
One of Spain's finest modern writers . . . [Ordesa] offers a humane and intimate account of his divorce, family problems, and addictions * * Independent, Books of the Month * *
Ordesa is a poet's novel, or maybe a novelist's prose poem. It's both things at once, and also the saddest and most candid autobiography I've read in recent times. I've been through this book twice and I still don't know how Vilas does it. I know, however, that this book is a gift, and maybe that's enough -- JUAN GABRIEL VASQUEZ, author of THE SHAPE OF THE RUINS
Becomes a way of looking honestly at what mourning really feels like - some of [Vilas'] observations on grief, along with the self-hatred and guilt that can follow a death, will strike a chord with anyone who has experienced a similar rupture -- Lucy Ellmann * * Guardian * *
A philosophically brave and emotionally-intelligent novel par excellence. There is rigour in the thought and deep scrutiny in the lyrical musings and reflections, which make it surely a classic which has sought no easy route to the reader's soul * * RTE * *
This is the album, the archive, the memory without lies or consolation of a life, a time, a family, a social class condemned to so much effort for very little obtained. A lot of precision is needed to tell these things, the acid, the sharpened knife, the exact needle to burst the balloon of vanity. What's left in the end is the clean emotion of truth and the distress of everything lost -- ANTONIO MUNOZ MOLINA author of the Man Booker International Prize-shortlisted LIKE A FADING SHADOW



Book Information
ISBN 9781786897343
Author Manuel Vilas
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Canongate Books
Publisher Canongate Books
Weight(grams) 207g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 18mm

Reviews

No reviews yet Write a Review

Booksplease  Reviews


J - United Kingdom

Fast and efficient way to choose and receive books

This is my second experience using Booksplease. Both orders dealt with very quickly and despatched. Now waiting for my next read to drop through the letterbox.

J - United Kingdom

T - United States

Will definitely use again!

Great experience and I have zero concerns. They communicated through the shipping process and if there was any hiccups in it, they let me know. Books arrived in perfect condition as well as being fairly priced. 10/10 recommend. I will definitely shop here again!

T - United States

R - Spain

The shipping was just superior

The shipping was just superior; not even one of the books was in contact with the shipping box -anywhere-, not even a corner or the bottom, so all the books arrived in perfect condition. The international shipping took around 2 weeks, so pretty great too.

R - Spain

J - United Kingdom

Found a hard to get book…

Finding a hard to get book on Booksplease and with it not being an over inflated price was great. Ordering was really easy with updates on despatch. The book was packaged well and in great condition. I will certainly use them again.

J - United Kingdom