Synopses & Reviews
A powerful Catalan author gives us a penetrating story of meaningless deaths and personal isolation, set in the heart of one of Spains most beautiful, vibrant places.
In sleepy Vidreres, a Catalonian village suffering a deadening recession, prostitutes sit along the highway and two teenage boys have just died a horrible death. After attending their funeral, a banker named Ernest heads out to the spot where their car collided with a tree a tree that he himself planted there. Trying to come to terms with the accident, he meets a brutish trucker named Miqui who takes him to two sweet whores. So begins Ernests journey into the dark depths of this unfathomable loss. Meanwhile, Miqui has his own plans, which involve a striking young woman and his senile fathers shotgun.
Long recognized among Catalonias leading authors, Toni Sala is at his dark, mischievous best, delivering a sinister, fast-moving tale laced with labyrinthine meditations worthy of Javier Marías. From Internet hookups and face transplants to tense standoffs, sexual fantasies, and the loss of the ones we hold most dear, Sala offers us a frighteningly contemporary vision of how alone we are in an age of unparalleled connectivity.
Review
Sala arranges an exercise in style that is completely original.”
Time Out BarcelonaA great novel that is the mirror image of the world we live in, but that leaves it dry and dark, barren and without any possibility of breathing and moving on.” Catorze
Review
WINNER OF THE 2014 PREMIS DE LA CRÍTICA, CATALONIAS MOST PRESTIGIOUS LITERARY AWARD
"A compelling existential mystery . . . a sort of Catalan answer to Russell Banks' The Sweet Hereafter, with a closing as haunting as a tale by Poe. Altogether brilliant." Kirkus starred review
Toni Sala creates an exercise in style that meditates on our most primal identity.” Time Out Barcelona
The Boys confirmed that what I believe to be literature is still possible. . . . A masterpiece.” Ara
The best hes ever written: powerful prose packed with emotion and reflection and striking images.” El Punt Avui
During the last 15 years, Catalan literature has produced few voices of such strength.” La Vanguardia
A great novel that reflects the world we live in.” Catorze
Synopsis
The once-bucolic Catalonian village of Vidreres has been ravaged by a harsh recession, and now two of its young men have died in a horrible car crash. As the town attends the funeral, a banker named Ernest heads to the tree where they died, trying to make sense of the tragedy. There he meets a brutish trucker, who in between Internet hookups and trips to prostitutes has taken a liking to Iona, the fiancée of one of the dead boys. Iona might be just what he needs to fix his tawdry life, but shes mixed up with an artist who makes frightening projects. Masterfully conjuring the voices of each of these four characters, Toni Sala entwines their lives and their feelings of guilt, fear, and rage over an unspeakable loss.
Long known as one of Spains most powerful authors, Toni Sala is at his mischievous best here, delivering a sinister, fast-moving tale laced with intricate meditations on everything from social networks to Spains economic collapse to the mysterious end that awaits us all. The Boys is a startlingly honest vision of the things well do in order to feel a little less alone in this world.
About the Author
Toni Sala is the author of over a dozen novels and works of nonfiction. In 2005 he was awarded the National Literature Prize by the Catalan government, and he has also received many other honors for his writing. He lives in Barcelona.
Mara Faye Lethems translations have appeared in The Best American Non-Required Reading, Granta, The Paris Review, Words Without Borders, and McSweeneys. She is the translator of Papers in the Wind by Eduardo Sacheri, Wonderful World by Javier Calvo, and others. She lives in Barcelona.