Barcelona Dreaming
SHORTLISTED FOR THE EDWARD STANFORD PRIZE FOR FICTION WITH A SENSE OF PLACE
'His confident, spellbinding prose is jewelled with uncanny details, gliding along in language that strikes, unsettles, and reawakens at every turn...This is a brilliant book' Maya C. Popa
'Cool and controlled...Electrifying...Reading Rupert Thomson novels can easily become an obsession' The Times
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Set on the eve of the financial crash of 2008, Barcelona Dreaming is made up of three stories that are linked by time and place, and also by the moving, unexpected interactions of a rich cast of characters.
The stories are narrated, in turn, by an English woman who runs a gift shop, an alcoholic jazz pianist, and a translator tormented by unrequited love, all of whose lives will be changed forever. Underpinning the novel, and casting a long shadow, is a crime committed against a young Moroccan immigrant.
Exploring themes of addiction, racism, celebrity, immigration, and self-delusion, and fuelled by a longing for the unattainable and a nostalgia for what is about to be lost, Barcelona Dreaming is a love letter to one of the world's most beautiful cities and a powerful and poignant fable for our uncertain times.