We have updated our Privacy Policy Please take a moment to review it. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the terms of our updated Privacy Policy.

City of Wonders

ebook / ISBN-13: 9781529410099

Price: £10.99

Select a format:

Paperback

Disclosure: If you buy products using the retailer buttons above, we may earn a commission from the retailers you visit.

Eduardo Mendoza’s classic novel about the birth of Barcelona as a world city, embodied in the rise of the ambitious and unscrupulous Onofre Bouvila

“Though historical in subject matter, this story of Catalonian enterprise and Barcelonan ambition is thoroughly contemporary in spirit” Jonathan Franzen

Stung by the realisation that his father is a fraud and a failure, Onofre Bouvila leaves a life of rural poverty to seek his fortune in Barcelona.

The year is 1888, and the Catalan capital is about to emerge from provincial obscurity to take its place amongst the great cities of the world, thanks to the upcoming Universal Exhibition.

Thanks to a tip-off from his landlord’s daughter, Onofre gets his big break distributing anarchist leaflets to workers preparing for the World Fair. From these humble beginnings, he branches out as a hair-tonic salesman, a burglar, a filmmaker, an arms smuggler and a political dealmaker, in a multifaceted career that brings him wealth and influence beyond his wildest dreams.

But, just as Barcelona’s rise makes it a haven for gangsters, crooks and spivs, vice begins to fester in Onofre’s heart. And the climax to his remarkable story will come just as a second World Fair in 1929 marks the city’s apotheosis.

Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor

What's Inside

Read More Read Less

Reviews

Though historical in subject matter, this story of Catalonian enterprise and Barcelonan ambition is thoroughly contemporary in spirit.
Jonathan Franzen
A splendid piacaresque novel . . . Rich in humour, irony and parody . . . Lusty and ingenious entertainment
New York Times Book Review
Rich in eccentric, violent, fantastic, and horrible incident . . . A profusion of bizarre characters, and a fair quota of entertaining digression.
The Times
A novel of great variety and scope . . . There is much to delight . . . A very considerable, and an exhilarating, achievement
Scotsman
A large book, written in picaresque style, and full of incidental pleasures.
Observer
Not since Ragtime has there been such a treasure of rascals and riches . . . Brilliant . . . Mendoza is a prodigiously inventive author.
Chicago Tribune
A major work, a great novel . . . a satirical love song and an adventurous chronicle that delivers the wonders promised in its title.
El País
One of this season's literary landmarks . . . an extravagant, amusing, fantastic, and moving fresco of Barcelona.
Vanguardia