Death in Spring

A heartbreaking, unforgettable read. One of the most important literary works from the second half of the 20th century

El Cultural

Dark and beautiful and brilliant

Sarah Moss, author of 'The Tidal Zone'

It is a total mystery to me why [Rodoreda] isn't widely worshipped. . . . She's on my list of authors whose works I intend to have read all of before I die. Tremendous, tremendous writer

John Darnielle, author of 'Wolf in White Van'

Mercè Rodoreda's artistry is of the highest order

Diana Athill

One of the most radical works from the past century

El Pais

Read it for its beauty, for the way it will surprise and subvert your desires, and as a testament to the human spirit in the face of brutality and willful inhumanity

Jesmyn Ward, author of 'Sing, Unburied, Sing', NPR

Rodoreda has bedazzled me

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Soaringly beautiful, urgent and disturbing... A masterpiece

Colm Tóibín, from the introduction

Utterly extraordinary - I have had few reading experiences like it - it's as if one is unravelling a terrible yet irresistible secret, the secret of death

Claire-Louise Bennett, author of 'Pond'

We must be grateful to the Penguin European Writers series, a precious venture in these dark times

John Banville

Mercè Rodoreda is not just one of the most accomplished post-war Catalan authors; she is also widely considered, notably by Gabriel García Márquez, to be the greatest Spanish writer of the 20th century

Culture Trip

The greatest contemporary Catalan novelist and possibly the best Mediterranean woman author since Sappho

David H Rosenthal

The novel is suspenseful, pushing the reader through the images, memories, and voices that flow within the protagonist's often confused mind as he develops into manhood. Just as the unnamed protagonist must navigate a world of contradictions, the novel reflects Rodoreda's own political, social, and literary exile while speaking of a tyranny that feels almost uncanny in its incantation

Bomb Magazine