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Making his English language debut, the iconoclastic, two-time Academy award-winning writer and director reveals his singular mind as never before in this collection of twelve remarkable stories spanning memoir, comedy, autofiction, parody, pastiche, and gothic fiction. With this debut collection, film legend Pedro Almodovar delivers a tantalizing glimpse into his world, formed by twelve stories carefully selected from his personal writings dating from the late ''60s to the present. Almodovar writes: "I''ve been asked to write my autobiography more than once, and I''ve always refused ... I''ve never kept a diary, and whenever I''ve tried, I''ve never made it to page two; in a sense, then, this book represents something of a paradox. It might be best described as a fragmentary autobiography, incomplete and a little cryptic." Each entry reflects Almodovar''s most intimate obsessions, as well as his evolution as an artist. In the title story, "The Last Dream," Almodovar reflects on the death of his mother. Other entries in the collection include a love story between Jesus and Barabbas, a story of retribution that formed the basis for the film Bad Education, a manic adventure about a film director searching for painkillers on a bank holiday weekend, and a gothic tale centered around a repentant vampire.
Report
"A genre-agnostic spin through the Spanish filmmaker's favorite preoccupations: doleful divas, Catholic education, rebellion, and the countercultural ferment of Madrid after Franco's rule." - Vulture
"Sometimes surreal, sometimes prurient, sometimes discomfiting-and every page worth reading." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A heady mix of factual and fictitious, befitting of one of cinema's most imaginative storytellers... [the collection is] bracing, the book serving as an outlet for something Almodóvar can't express from behind a camera." - The Observer
"The sheer depth and breadth of the collection is astonishing, and it's made more astonishing by the economy of language. A slim volume of just a dozen stories, The Last Dream is light on embellishment or lengthy description. Almodóvar's prose is lean but evocative, elegant but grounded, and translator Frank Wynne has done a remarkable job rendering it into stylish, beautifully spare English. Almodóvar's characters, like those in his films, are full of yearning and wonder. Both for fans of great short fiction and for fans of the director, The Last Dream is a must-read." - BookPage (starred review)
"'The Life and Death of Miguel'...could have been written by Roberto Bolaño at his height... It's fascinating that in fiction Almodóvar prefers to inhabit [a] historical and often fantastical universe. To judge by The Last Dream, he's akin to a Spanish Angela Carter, or a cousin to the undersung Argentinian genius Silvina Ocampo. What his films and stories have in common is a vivid melodrama; a preoccupation with motherhood, outsiders and religion." - Telegraph
"[A] brisk, eclectic and idiosyncratic tour of [Almodóvar's] memories and imagination... Over the course of 211 pages, the exuberant, coal-haired enfant terrible of Spanish cinema becomes the salt-and-pepper-haired auteur of the late 90s and then, finally, the thoughtful, white-haired sage [of today, these] 12 tales tell a more honest story than would a straightforward memoir." - The Guardian
"[A] real page turner." - John Waters
"A literary treat ... exactly what one would expect from Almodóvar, who gleefully flouts conventions of so-called morality with in-your-face works on homosexuality, religion, and more ... great, cheeky fun ... Devotees of Almodóvar's cinema won't be disappointed by this lively collection." - Shelf Awareness
"Pedro Almodovar's first book isn't a memoir, even though he's been asked to write one for many years. But it's like a memoir of the mind, for Almodovar presents everything from childhood memories to short stories to ideas for films to enigmatic passages that might be any or all of these things. It's typically tantalizing, melodramatic, unexpected and inevitably Almodovarian." - Parade
"The stories in The Last Dream are like a kaleidoscope that reflects to you only the finest, most unexpected moments. The delicious blend of truth and fiction drops you intimately, with raw honesty, inside Almodóvar's heart. I love this book!" - Miguel Arteta, director of Beatriz At Dinner
"Instantly fascinating, brimming with twisting narratives and unforgettable endings... The Last Dream stands alone as a major literary talent's virtuosic debut." - Kaveh Akbar, New York Times bestselling author of Martyr!
