Lizard Tails - Softcover

Juan Marse

3.64

737 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 009945517X ISBN 13: 9780099455172

Publisher: Vintage Books USA, 2004

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David's alcoholic father, who is being pursued for political reasons, has deserted David and his attractive red-haired mother. David inhabits a fantasy world, fuelled by the films he sees at his local cinema and by images of war - Spitfires crashing into the sea, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima - and by the image of an RAF pilot whose photograph is pinned on his bedroom wall. David and his friend spend their time collecting detachable lizards' tail; symbolic of the detachment and uncertainty which characterises their young lives in troubled post-war Spain.

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About the Author:

Juan Marse was born in Barcelona in 1933. Following the publication of his first novel in 1960 he has gone on to become one of the most respected living authors in Spain. He has been honoured with many literary prizes, including the National Narrative Prize for Lizard Tails, the European Literature Prize for Shanghai Nights and, in 2008, the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious award for Spanish-language Literature.

Review:

"It's magnificent. Once you have finished the novel you feel bound to start again, despite the fact that it has been unforgettable" * Vanguardia * "Juan Marse [is] among a generation bringing Iberian writing once more to the fore" * Daily Telegraph * "Hauntingly well written, full of tightly drawn characters, well crafted, rhythmically impeccable. The language is slangy, staccato, dense and smooth, poetic and prosaic... Juan Marse's contribution to European fiction has been consistently remarkable; Lizard Tails sustains his high reputation" * Times Literary Supplement *

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