The Back Room

by Carmen Martín Gaite

Book Overview

Winner of Spain's National Prize for Literature

In the middle of the night, a woman awakens to find a stranger in her bedroom. Though she cannot determine who he is--or, indeed, whether he is even real at all and not just an extension of her dreams or her writing--she is drawn into a conversation with her unexpected guest. What she tells him becomes the story of a woman coming of age in the repressive Spain of the Franco era.

In The...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0872863719
• ISBN13: 9780872863712
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: City Lights Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

Best literature you will ever read

If you are interested in the process of writing a book, and at the same time learn about the life in Spain during the 20th century this is your book.

A balance of Borges and Paglia

I read this in the original Spanish as an undergrad at Gettysburg College (in a class taught by a superb professor). It is a mix of the surreal, of meta-literary constructs and a feminist manifesto on the search for gynocentricity (and the Male obfuscation of this search). Be prepared to read and re-read this work. It doesn't allow an easy approach to the narrative but it is worth the effort.