Barcelona Dreaming, Rupert Thomson
Barcelona Dreaming, Rupert Thomson
List: $15.99 | Sale: $11.20
Club: $7.99

Barcelona Dreaming
A Novel

Author: Rupert Thomson

Narrator: Sasha Higgins, Gary Tiedemann

Unabridged: 6 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/19/2022


Synopsis

Set on the eve of the financial crash of 2008, this evocative novel is made up of three stories linked by time and place, and also by the moving, unexpected interactions of a rich cast of characters.

Barcelona Dreaming is narrated, in turn, by an English woman who runs a gift shop, an alcoholic jazz pianist, and a translator tormented by unrequited love, all of whose lives will be changed forever. Underpinning the novel, and casting a long shadow, is a crime committed against a young Moroccan immigrant.

Exploring themes of addiction, racism, celebrity, immigration, and self-delusion, and fueled by a longing for the unattainable and a nostalgia for what is about to be lost, Barcelona Dreaming is a love letter to one of the world's most beautiful cities and a powerful and poignant fable for our uncertain times.

About Rupert Thomson

Rupert Thomson is the author of twelve highly acclaimed novels, including Katherine Carlyle; Secrecy; The Insult, which was short-listed for the Guardian Fiction Prize and selected by David Bowie as one of his 100 Must-Read Books of All Time; The Book of Revelation, which was made into a feature film by Ana Kokkinos; and Death of a Murderer, which was short-listed for the Costa Novel of the Year Award. His memoir, This Party's Got to Stop, was named Writers' Guild Non-Fiction Book of the Year. He lives in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sam

A middle-aged woman begins a relationship with a young Moroccan immigrant but their love must contend with a nosy, racist neighbour. An alcoholic jazz pianist’s relationship with his younger Brazilian girlfriend and her son falls apart - could football star Ronaldinho save him? A translator meets a......more

Goodreads review by Jill

I’ve never been to Barcelona although I have traveled throughout the Andalusia area in Spain. To know the country is to love it – the alluring scents, the frosted-glass slats, the hidden passages and tapas bars that stay open until the crack of dawn, the lushness that gives rise to unmet yearnings. B......more

I’ve been Barcelona dreaming for over a year now, since canceling a trip to Spain and Portugal last year due to the pandemic. Since the blurb promised that this is a love letter to Barcelona, from the days before the financial crash of 2008,(Thomson lived there in the early aughts), I especially was......more

Goodreads review by Michael

I really enjoyed this book, as I’m a sucker for interconnected stories. Strong sense of place, great writing, and three distinct narrators.......more

Goodreads review by Zoë

The first book I’ve finished on the x32 bus in TIME! I really enjoyed these three stories and especially how they overlapped with each other.......more