"A posthumous story collection by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (2020)"

Carlos Ruiz Zafón, La Ciudad de Vapor. Todos los cuentos [The city of steam: all the stories], 2020, 224 pages.

Publisher’s summary: (from Literary Rambles blog)

Carlos Ruiz Zafón conceived this work as a recognition of his readers who had followed him along the saga begun with The Shadow of the Wind.

«I can conjure the faces of the kids of the Ribera neighborhood with whom I sometimes played or fought in the street, but none which I would like to rescue from the land of indifference. None but that of Blanca.»

A boy decides to become a writer when he finds out that his inventions give him a few moments more with a rich girl who has stolen his heart. An architect flees from Constantinople with the plans of an unassailable library. A strange knight challenges Cervantes to write a book as has never existed before. And Gaudí, navegating to a mysterious meeting in New York, delights in light and steam, the matter cities should be made of.

The echo of the great characters and motives of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books novels resonates in theses stories by Carlos Ruiz Zafón –gathered together for the first time, and some of them unpublished so far– turning on the magic of the narrator who made us dream like nobody else.

One of the most popular posts on this blog is on a book by Ruiz Zafón: Labyrinth of Spirits (2016).

The Guardian offers an obituary (June 2020), in case you are unfamiliar with this author."

SOURCE: Planeta (publisher)

The “Grandparents Who Protest” confront Barcelona’s mayor

I usually enjoy it when those in positions of power are approached by ordinary people and treated as a human being who has made important decisions.

In this case, Xavier Trias is encircled by a clutch of the Iaioflautas outside a restaurant and finds himself checking his mobile phone while they calmly launch polite tirades against his party’s budget cuts at him.



At the start of the video, the mayor does that characteristic, irritating Catalan shrug and says “I don’t understand…I’m only talking about things that relate to me.”

To me, this video is notable for the good-natured tone of their harangues and his evasiveness, though he is not led away to a more pressing engagement by any minders.

Next month Trias will have completed his first year in office: a time of brutal slashing of a range of public services.