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A Man of His Word (excerpt)
Imma Monsó
Born in Lleida in 1959, Imma Monsó
is one of Catalan's most beloved
fiction writers, and a contributor to
the main Spanish and Catalan
newspapers
El País,
La Vanguardia
and others. All her literary works
have been translated into Spanish,
and most of them on to several
other languages, with numerous awards.
A Man of His Wordis a work of sudden mourning, as the
narrator comes to terms with her deceased husband, whom
she calls
Cometa
– Catalan for
comet
. The book is riven in a
novel dual structure, with A chapters—"A for affection,
amusement and acceptance"—and B chapters—"B for
barbarous, brutal, bare" competing for the anguished, dual
attention toward remembrance and reconciliation.
This is the author's first work available in English, now just
published.
Translated by Maruxa Relaño and Martha Tennent.