Description
Book SynopsisIt’s a despairing town filled with half-finished housing developments and unemployment, a place defeated by the burst of the economic bubble.
Stuck in the same town is Esteban, his small factory bankrupt, his investments gone, the sole carer to his mute, invalid father.
Trade ReviewUtterly convincing in its psychological details, but also memorable for the beauty of its writing and rhythms -- Colm Tóibín
A dizzying survey of the last 90 years of Spanish history... Margaret Jull Costa's incandescent translation carries along Esteban's turbulent torrent... When this book finally releases its grip, you may find your lapels sullied by grubby fingerprints you are in no rush to scrub out -- Mara Faye Lethem * New York Times *
Chirbes, one of Spain’s premier writers, is at his best when fully immersed, as he is in this novel. If Proust and an Old Testament prophet had collaborated to write about Spain’s recession, it might have been something like the writing here - agonized, dense, full of rage, and difficult to forget * Publishers Weekly *
On the Edge, Chirbes’s masterpiece, arrives as a message in a bottle among all the cans, rusting appliances, and tangled tackle. The fumes of the lagoon mix with the lingering sulfur of the Atocha railway-station bombing; the Spanish economy has all but collapsed. Who, or what, is to blame? Chirbes’s novel accuses everyone -- Joshua Cohen * Harper's *
A moving, densely detailed portrait of people without hope * Kirkus Reviews *
