Catalan literature on the American market

These days, a small American publishing house, Dalkey Archive Press, has made the news in Catalonia because they are starting a series of Catalan classics translated into English.

This is what their website tells us about the project:

The Catalan Literature Series at Dalkey Archive Press presents modern classics of Catalan fiction in English translation, featuring exceptional authors at the forefront of Catalan letters. The Series aims to bring English-language readers closer to one of Europe's oldest, yet still relatively unknown bodies of literature, with a history stretching from medieval times to the present day, thanks to Catalan authors' persistent belief in the power of literature to express the complexity of individual and cultural identity.

The series is published in cooperation with the Institut Ramon Llull (www.llull.cat), a public consortium responsible for the promotion of Catalan language and culture abroad.

The Dolls' Room

Llorenç Villalonga, Deborah Bonner

A classic of contemporary Catalan literature, and a haunting and satirical portrait of a vanishing age, Llorenç Villalonga's The Dolls' Room concerns the decline of Don Toni and Dona Maria Antonia Bearn: aristocrats, cousins, husband and wife . . .

This is good news as there is in general very little literature by non English speaking authors translated into English - and a lot of good English speaking literature translated into other languages... If you are outside of the US you can surely find these titles on amazon.com or your local equivalent.