Blitz
Written with biting humor, the novel is brimful of moving snapshots of lost love and characters who appear to have lost their way inside an hourglass. His mediation on the passing of time will lead our protagonist into the arms of an older woman, Helga, in a cross-generational encounter that is the beating heart of the tale.
Blitz could be classed as a romantic tragicomedy that recounts the exploits of Beto, a young architect who heads to Munich in the company of his girlfriend to Munich to take part in a landscape-painting competition, where he hopes to improve his future prospects. Before long, however, he finds himself dumped, bewildered and heading nowhere. After a flash of lightning (the precise meaning of the word blitz), Beto will have to face up to a change in his life and ideals.
Trapped inside Beto’s thoughts, the reader will be unable to stop wondering what the next page will bring. Now what? The answer lies within the pared-down prose style in David Trueba’s much anticipated follow-up to Saber Perder, which picked up the National Critics Prize and was shortlisted fot the Médicis Étranger Award.
PRESS
«Lively and amusing. . . Trueba’s gentle satire of youthful aimlessness is set against the background of the financial crisis, and his bumbling, self-pitying, but ultimately sympathetic Beto proves a talented guide through a largely predictable world of disappointments, reversals, and occasional joys.»
Publishers Weekly
«With brilliant touches of witty humor, Trueba develops the theme of time with the narrative’s month-by-month calendar structure and the glaring age difference between the two lovers. A delightfully rendered, bittersweet representation of a May-December romance.» Library Journal
«Trueba’s tale is both moving and humorous, a powerful reminder to make the most of those intimate moments.» Bookriot
«Multitalent David Trueba shows himself an excellent observer and a keen chronicler of modern life. (…) He has a talent for making up surprising turns and he writes excellent dialogues, that are both casual and sharp.» TROUW (The Netherlands)
«With the economic crisis as a backdrop and humour aplenty, Trueba offers up an off-the-wall love story, as delicate as the breeze. A heartfelt tsunami, a must read.» Lisbeth Koutchoumoff, Le Temps
«A delightful novel, original and subtle.» Libération
«A beautiful novel by David Trueba, writer, screenwriter and film director – the wonder boy of the Spanish cultural scene.» Olivier Mony, Le Figaro Magazine
«Trueba tugs on your heartstrings, smiling all the while, transforming his tale into a psychological handbook for the divorced, the abandoned and the lonesome. A powerful, unmissable novel. A guy to be treasured!”» Jordi Basté, La Vanguardia
«The novel is brimming with humor, while also packing an emotional charge. It takes on the theme of lost love, meditating on the passing of time and the uncertainty of the future.» Benjamín Prado, La Ventana-Cadena Ser
«A powerhouse of a novel, whose meditative, insightful pages challenge taboos and hit right where it hurts: in the heart of bewilderment, in the unpredictable nature of sex and desire.» Jordi Gracia, El País
«Trueba deploys the full range of registers with a deft touch, a highly readable style and a keen sense of narrative timing. The novel goes beyond comedy to scale greater heights.» J.A. Masoliver Ródenas, La Vanguardia
“Written with his trademark intelligence and showing the romanticism of disappointment, that inevitably turns out badly.» Sergi Pàmies, La Vanguardia
«A short tale, that hits home like a bolt of lightning, in which the author stakes a claim for the attraction of opposites.» Carlos Sala, La Razón
«An outstanding novel about the onset of maturity, containing hard-hitting mediations on lost love and second chances in life. Dazzlingly lucid and compassionate.» José A. Sau, La Opinión
«A spirited tragicomedy that bears witness to the author’s sharp-eyed powers of observation, and his sense of humor.» Ferran Bono, El País
«A magnificent novel, a box of delights, told with a deftness only within reach of a master of the storytelling art.» J.M. Pozuelo Yvancos, ABC Cultural
TRANSLATIONS
Brazil: Planeta Brazil; Croatia: Meandar; France: Flammarion; Italy: Feltrinelli; Netherlands: Meulenhoff; US: Other Press
