by Felipe Alfau
First published 1900
Spanish immigrants arrive in New York City carrying their old world with them, but America refuses to accommodate what they bring. The moment they learn English, as one character observes, complications begin. These transplanted souls find themselves caught between two incompatible realities. They speak Spanish at home but must navigate American streets. They remember Spain but must earn money in New York. The city warps around them, unfriendly and confusing, as they attempt an impossible task: fitting two worlds together that simply will not merge. Their struggles grow increasingly absurd and comic, yet something darker lurks beneath the humor. The characters move through their daily lives while the narrative itself seems to drift toward emptiness and dissolution. What begins as the familiar story of people seeking better lives in America becomes something stranger and more unsettling, as if the very act of immigration has set forces in motion that cannot be controlled or understood.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: cultural-clash, fish-out-of-water
Setting: New York City, Spain
Period: 20th-century
319 pages · Paperback · SEIX BARRAL, 1991.