On the Edge - Softcover

Chirbes, Rafael; Jull Costa, Margaret; Miles, Valerie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811222845 ISBN 13: 9780811222846

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2016

Synopsis

On the Edge opens with the discovery of a rotting corpse in the marshes on the outskirts of Olba, Spain--a town wracked by despair after the burst of the economic bubble, and a microcosm of a world of defeat, debt, and corruption. Stuck in this town is Esteban--his small factory bankrupt, his investments stolen by a "friend," and his unloved father, a mute invalid, entirely his personal burden. Much of the novel unfolds in Esteban's raw and tormented monologues. But other voices resound from the wreckage--soloists stepping forth from the choir--and their words, sharp as knives, crowd their terse, hypnotic monologues of ruin, prostitution, and loss.

Chirbes alternates this choir of voices with a majestic third-person narration, injecting a profound and moving lyricism and offering the hope that a new vitality can emerge from the putrid swamps. On the Edge, even as it excoriates, pulsates with robust life, and its rhythmic, torrential style marks the novel as an indelible masterpiece.

About this title

About the Authors

Rafael Chirbes (1949-2015) wrote ten novels and received the National Prize for Literature and the Critics Prize for On the Edge. ABC named him "the best writer of the twenty-first century in Spain."

Margaret Jull Costa, who has translated Javier Marías and José Saramago, lives in England.

Valerie Miles, an editor, writer, translator, and professor, is the cofounding editor of the literary journal Granta in Spanish.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811222845
• ISBN 13: 9780811222846
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464