Translation Rights TQE / A moment's peace

Arturo Cifuentes re-appears like a ghost from the past in the life of the narrator, Antonio Orejudo. Cifuentes is an old college friend and was Orejudo’s roommate in New York when they both started working in the United States. Seventeen years have gone by since they last saw each other, and a divorced Cifuentes has returned to Spain to become a member of the faculty in the university where they once studied. He has many stories to tell: his marital crisis, his unfortunate professional adventures, and most importantly, his falling out of love with the Humanities. The narrator, who also goes into the fevered experiences that marked him during those years, does not suspect that his old friend wants to propose something much more important that will affect them both: He wants to reveal the phonies for what they are and to expose the roots of an old and permanent conspiracy. The stories, which alternate between the emotional and the humorous, follow each other at an addictive pace. The different versions amplify, complement or contradict each other, as if it couldn’t possibly be any other way. What others tell us, what we tell ourselves, what the past tells us, and even the truths which we take for granted about institutions and disciplines, don’t they, in the end, make a “reality to size”?

Antonio Orejudo was born in Madrid in 1963, and has a doctorate in Spanish Language and Literature. For seven years he worked as a Spanish literature professor in different universities throughout the United States and also spent a year as a visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam. He is currently a professor in the University of Almería (Spain). He is the author of Fabulosas narraciones por historias, recipient of the XX Tigre Juan Prize in 1997 and published by Tusquets Editores in 2007; Ventajas de viajar en tren, which was granted the XV Andalucía Prize for Novel; and Reconstrucción, “the year’s most impressive Spanish book”, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Praise for Un momento de descanso:

“The novel has great comic force in many of its scenes, and it is a very pleasurable read thanks to the author’s talent for anecdotal storytelling and to his tendency towards cultural jokes and malicious allusions.”

El Periódico

“The reader jumps euphorically through the pages of this book and leaves them as a kid does a parade. Let happiness reign! Qué Leer

“If Orejudo is not the best novelist in Spain today, I put my prestige on the line in affirming that he is – by far – the most interesting.” Estado Crítico

Antonio Orejudo was born in Madrid in 1963. He has a doctorate in Spanish Philology and, for seven years, worked as a Spanish literature professor in different universities throughout the United States. He is currently a professor in the University of Almería and has spent a year as a visiting professor in the University of Amsterdam. Fabulosas narraciones por historias won the XX Tigre Juan Prize for the best first novel in 1997, one year after its publication. In 2000 he won the XV Andalucía Prize for Novel with Ventajas de viajar en tren (Advantages of Travelling by Train). Reconstrucción (Reconstruction, 2005), his most recent novel, has been translated into German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Korean and Dutch, and the German translation in particular was described as “the year’s most impressive Spanish book”, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung