Come On Up

November 16, 2020
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. “Àngels Quintana and Fèlix 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. Agent: Sandra Pareja, Casanovas & Lynch Literary Agency.

December 1, 2020
An award-winning Spanish journalist and writer, Nopca presents his first English-translated collection of stories. In "An Intersectional Conversationalist at Heart," Vict�ria works hard to become a journalist. However, brief encounters with a famous poet cause various shifts in her career that shine a light on the impermanence of professional success and the importance of character in the grand scheme of life. In "Don't Leave," M�riam finds work at a retail store after an unsuccessful search for a job in an art gallery. A man, whom she calls Robin Hood, begins to visit her every day on his way to another destination and waits in long lines to bring her free hot chocolate. She romanticizes their interactions without realizing that both of them seem to be using each other to distract themselves from some unspoken discontent. In "Engagement Ring," Rafael romanticizes his relationships with his beloved dog, grandmother, and ex-girlfriend, leading to an engagement and a honeymoon trip that his grandmother believes will end in tragedy. Nopca's stories are delightfully witty, insightful, and masterfully told.

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January 1, 2021
These short stories chronicle the romantic, intellectual, and economic frustrations of disparate characters in Barcelona. The stories in Catalan writer Nopca's English-language debut often take an intimate view of their characters. For some, that involves venturing in the minutiae of a relationship; for others, it's about taking a deep dive into the characters' literary and artistic tastes. The first story, "An Intersectional Conservationist at Heart," establishes the milieu very quickly; it focuses on a handful of meetings between a journalist and a poet and academic. Despite the story's weighty title and the literary allusions found within--including mentions of V.S. Naipaul and Harold Pinter--Nopca is less focused on intellectual credibility than on the missed connections, petty rivalries, and ethical lapses his characters must contend with. These stories don't focus only on intellectuals, however: "�ngels Quintana and F�lix Palme Have Problems" tells the story of a couple working in bars and hotels who find themselves out of work after they hit 40 in youth-obsessed Barcelona. Bars also play a significant role in "The Neighbor Ladies," whose immigrant protagonist, Jia, begins to question his chosen vocation as a bar owner after learning the tragic life story of a hard-drinking woman who regularly asks him for "gin tonic." The highlight of the collection is "Swiss Army Knife," about a middle-aged couple whose fondness for reading the literature of the countries they visit drives a rift between them. Gradually, the real-life Swiss writer Peter Stamm takes on a greater and greater significance for both of them, leading to a conclusion that's both deadpan comedic and harrowingly bleak. These stories can occasionally feel a little too witty, but their moments of wry humor and human interaction are frequently rewarding. From intellectual satire to slapstick comedy, this book covers plenty of emotional terrain.

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