Why, Why, Why?

Catalan's greatest contemporary writer delivers a wickedly funny story collection, a delectable brew of dark humor and biting satire on human relationships.

About the author

Quim Monzó was born in Barcelona in 1952. He has been awarded the
National Award, the City of Barcelona Award, the Prudenci Bertrana Award, the El Temps Award, the Lletra d’Or Prize for the best book of the year, and the Catalan Writers’ Award, and he has been awarded Serra d’Or magazine’s prestigious Critics’ Award four times. He has also translated numerous authors into Catalan, including Truman Capote, J. D. Salinger, and Ernest Hemingway.

Peter Bush is an award-winning translator who lives in Barcelona. His translations include Juan Goytisolo's Níjar Country, Teresa Solana's A Shortcut to Paradise, Alain Badiou's In Praise of Love, and Josep Pla's The Gray Notebook.

Summary

A man tries to teach a stone to speak through sheer force of will. An engaged couple makes a pact to never lie, and their union dissolves immediately. Over the course of a phone call, a man learns that his girlfriend died months ago, and that he’s been unknowingly seeing her twin sister. Prince Charming marries Cinderella, but then has an affair with the evil stepsisters. A psychopath's liver explodes after a night of heavy drinking, but instead of killing him, it allows him to be a better drinker.
These, and many more, strange and twisted characters populate the pages of Why, Why, Why?, a delectable brew of dark humor and biting satire on human relationships. In these stories, the characters don’t start falling until they know they’re off the cliff. By then, rock bottom isn’t a long way off. Another stunning entry from Catalan’s greatest contemporary writer, Monzó’s stories dust themselves off and speed on to their next catastrophe.

Foreword

•Send copies to the top 75 or so Open Letter bookstore accounts: City Lights, McNally Jackson, Elliot Bay, etc.

•Approximately 200 advance copies sent to primary publications. This list includes: New York Times, SF Chronicle, LA Times, n+1, New York Review of Books, The Nation, Bookforum, The Believer, Atlantic Monthly, New Yorker, Rain Taxi, Time Out New York/Chicago, World Literature Today, Flavorwire, Washington Post, BOMB, Literary Review, Complete Review, Words Without Borders, B&N Review, Harper's, Shelf Awareness, Quarterly Conversation, Chicago Tribune, Typographical Era, Slate, Salon, etc. Also sent to the following trade publications: Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, Library Journal.

•Advance copies also sent to members of the NBCC Award Committee and the Best Translated Book Award Fiction Committee.

•Promotion and giveaways on Three Percent and on social media via Open Letter's FB & Twitter accounts (almost 7,500 likes on FB; over 14,000 followers on Twitter; 1,500 followers on Instagram), and through the Press’s newsletter, which goes out to over 12,000 people on a biweekly basis.

•Ebook available and will be mentioned on all press release materials, Open Letter website, etc.

•Co-op available

•Email marketing campaign to academics who are interested in Spanish/Catalan literature.

Additional text

“Today’s best known writer in Catalan. He is also, no exaggeration, one of the world’s great short-story writers.” —The Independent

“A gifted writer, he draws well on the rich tradition of Spanish surrealism . . . to sustain the lyrical, visionary quality of his imagination.”—New York Times

"Monzó delivers drollery on nearly every page, in observations that are incisive and hilarious and horrifying, often all at once." —Publishers Weekly

"Monzó blends verve and precision in these stories while also posing bold philosophical questions." —Kirkus Reviews

Product details

Authors	QUIM MONZO, Quim Monzó
Assisted by	Peter Bush (Translation)
Publisher	Ingram Publishers Services
Languages	English
Product format	Paperback / Softback
Released	30.11.2019
EAN	9781948830041
ISBN	978-1-948830-04-1
No. of pages	114
Dimensions	215 mm x 140 mm x 18 mm
Weight	188 g
Subjects	Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Humorous / Black Humor, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / European / Spanish & Portuguese

Product details

• Authors: QUIM MONZO, Quim Monzó
• Assisted by: Peter Bush (Translation)
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.11.2019
• EAN: 9781948830041
• ISBN: 978-1-948830-04-1
• No. of pages: 114
• Dimensions: 215 mm x 140 mm x 18 mm
• Weight: 188 g
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Humorous / Black Humor, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / European / Spanish & Portuguese