Come On Up
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Global capitalism fails young Barcelona couples in this dynamic debut
“Heartbreaking and hilarious” —New York Times Book Review
“Nopca’s stories, written with clarity and flair, are smart and modern, filled with sharply observed detail. They capture the unease of the times and the flux of contemporary life in Barcelona with wit, wisdom, moments of pure hilarity, and a mixture of sympathy and dark laughter.” —Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn and House of Names
What happens when the hopes of a generation are dashed by austerity policies and underemployment? Come On Up is a group portrait of contemporary Barcelona, beaten by the economic crisis and divided by a secessionist movement. Always witty, often absurdist, these stories offer a mesmerizing glimpse into the daily lives of couples, families, and neighbors living the new normal of the 21st century.
A husband seeks revenge on his wife as they stalk author Peter Stamm; an out-of-work bartender fills his empty days by shoving bananas into the tailpipes of parked cars; a mysterious ritual, spied through a neighbor’s window, arouses deadly spirits. Masterfully paced, the eleven mordant stories of Come On Up draw us into an embattled world whose past is unresolved and whose future is uncertain.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Citizens on the fringe of Catalan society are the stars in Spanish journalist Nopca's witty collection, his English-language debut. In "Don't Leave," an aspiring art historian deals with a clash between her boyfriend and a charming suitor. " ngels Quintana and F lix Palme Have Problems" follows a waiter who loses his job after arguing with rude customers and inadvertently starts a movement by sticking bananas into the exhaust pipes of motorcycles owned by Barcelona's cultural elite. In the best story, "Candles and Robes," a family's neighbors perform rituals to return spirits to the world of the dead. Emotions are often distilled through an omniscient narrator's wry asides. In "An Intersectional Conservationist at Heart," in which an arrogant professor dies after getting a young journalist and her boyfriend fired, the couple sees a Tarantino film, "another one of his stories of vengeance and payback." While Nopca relies a bit too heavily on describing dreams to reveal characters, he succeeds at tying the stories to Barcelona's fraught place in the Catalan secession movement. All of the stories make noise, and some of them really take off.
