Medardo Fraile, born in Madrid in 1925, is considered to be one of Spain's finest short-story writers. The collection Cuentos de verdad (on which this anthology is based), won him the 1965 Premio Nacional de la Crítica. While his stories have appeared in translation in other story collections, this is the first complete anthology of his work to appear in English Like Anton Chekhov and Katherine Mansfield, Medardo Fraile is a chronicler of the minor tragedies and triumphs of ordinary life, and each short tale opens up an entire exquisite world.
"These twenty-nine stories prove Fraile to be an obsessive and precise writer who, like Anton Chekhov or Jane Bowles, is fascinated by the silent despair underlying everyday life. . . . [They] are masterfully muted, their insights impactful but delayed. They resist explanation and action, choosing, instead, to focus on the increasingly overlooked aspects of life: the dimness of aging, the burden of inexplicable gestures, the scything sound of footsteps crossing the sidewalk. Fraile’s stories, tightly controlled and peopled with scrupulously-rendered characters, offer a fine deviation from the giddy desperation of much contemporary literature. English readers are lucky to finally have the opportunity to read Fraile’s crystalline work." - The Iowa Review
"Life lasts only a few minutes, but Fraile's narrative "nose" will endure for ever." - Andrés Neuman
Medardo Fraile, born in Madrid in 1925, is considered to be one of Spain's finest short-story writers. The collection Cuentos de verdad (on which this anthology is based), won him the 1965 Premio Nacional de la Crítica. While his stories have appeared in translation in other story collections, this is the first complete anthology of his work to appear in English Like Anton Chekhov and Katherine Mansfield, Medardo Fraile is a chronicler of the minor tragedies and triumphs of ordinary life, and each short tale opens up an entire exquisite world.
Praise
"These twenty-nine stories prove Fraile to be an obsessive and precise writer who, like Anton Chekhov or Jane Bowles, is fascinated by the silent despair underlying everyday life. . . . [They] are masterfully muted, their insights impactful but delayed. They resist explanation and action, choosing, instead, to focus on the increasingly overlooked aspects of life: the dimness of aging, the burden of inexplicable gestures, the scything sound of footsteps crossing the sidewalk. Fraile’s stories, tightly controlled and peopled with scrupulously-rendered characters, offer a fine deviation from the giddy desperation of much contemporary literature. English readers are lucky to finally have the opportunity to read Fraile’s crystalline work." - The Iowa Review
"Life lasts only a few minutes, but Fraile's narrative "nose" will endure for ever." - Andrés Neuman
