Ficción moderna y contemporanea

Saudade reportedly has no direct English translation; it's a Portuguese word describing the nostalgic longing for something that may never return, or may not exist. This feeling can be strangely comforting; author Manuel de Mello calls it "A pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy." It permeates the music of Brazil, another nation steeped in slavery and sadness and the hope for a better life. Yet this heartsick yearning's actually very familiar to those of us born and raised in North America; we often call it "the blues." This saudade-themed anthology explores this fascinating emotional territory in exciting poems and stories from a range of new and up-and-coming authors--pieces that linger after the last page is turned.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.



This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Xavier Bertran (Terrassa, 1968) va estudiar a l?Institut del Teatre. És un actor versàtil i camaleònic, capaç de transformar-se en un personatge rere l?altre. Molta gent el coneix com a Vicenç Cartanyà, Germà Jové o Biel Binimelis, personatges que han popularitzat programes de televisió com 7 de notícies, Set de nit, Les 1000 i una i, actualment, Minoria absoluta. També ha col·laborat en el programa Versió original de Catalunya Ràdio i ha participat en diverses produccions teatrals (entre elles, ?La Perritxola?, amb Dagoll Dagom). Com a autor teatral, ha estrenat Guillermo Gallardo en Gimiendo a lo lindo i Entre dos senos. Ha estat guionista de Plats bruts i 7 de notícies. Els articles que recollim en aquest volum van ser publicats a La Vanguardia i al 9 Nou.Amb la ploma al cosXavier Bertran és conegut pel gran públic per les seves aparicions televisives, sobretot pel seu personatge Vicenç Cartanyà, una paròdia d?home del temps que ha fet fortuna als programes d?humor de TV3 i Citytv. El que no sap tanta gent és que Xavier Bertran ja era, abans de convertir-se en figura mediàtica, un articulista brillant i un dramaturg amb mitja dotzena d?obres estrenades. Estem acostumats que personatges mediàtics publiquin llibres. Xavier Bertran és un exemple l?itinerari contrari, el d?un autor extraordinàriament dotat a qui la fama ha eclipsat, paradoxalment, com a escriptor.Amb la ploma al cos recull articles de Xavier Bertran publicats durant els últims cinc anys a l?edició del 9Nou, l?edició vallesana d?El Punt Diari, i a La Vanguardia. Són articles escrits a contracorrent, d?una incorrecció política irreverent, que ha fet que un autor com Quim Monzó hagi arribat a enyorar, llegint-los, les seves pròpies gamberrades de joventut. Xavier Bertran posa al descobert les inconsistències im(morals) i la ximpleria del món en què vivim.En aquest llibre no se salva ningú, perquè tothom rep garrotades, des del Papa de Roma fins als matrimonis heterosexuals! Els articles de Xavier Bertran són de fet microcontes, petites històries amanides amb un sentit de l?argot insuperable, un argot hilarant que refuta el derrotisme d?aquells que sempre ens han volgut fer creure que el català és una llengua massa estreta per captar la riquesa idiomàtica del llenguatge popular que sentim parlar al carrer. La capacitat de Xavier Bertran per ficar-se dintre la pell dels seus personatges, per fer-los parlar a la seva manera, li permet de dinamitar les conviccions de les seves criatures des de dintre, sense haver d?expressar mai un judici moralista ni paternalista. Som nosaltres mateixos que ens posem en evidència en aquestes estampes de la vida quotidiana, i ens veiem reflectits en un racó o altre d?aquest llibre. En els articles de Xavier Bertran no hi trobareu mai l?opinió de l?intel·lectual que us guia amb la seva llum, sinó el virtuosisme del ventríloc que sap estrafer mil veus i que us dóna la frase de gràcia que us desarma. No teniu a les mans el llibre d?un periodista, ni d?un opinador, ni potser ben bé d?un narrador, sinó l?obra d?un dramaturg que curiosament ha sabut explicar-nos, d?una manera concisa i directa, ?el temps que fa?.Com ha dit Quim Monzó «Vaig descobrir el Xavier Bertran (o Xavier de Bertran, com veig que firma els seus articles) una nit, en un programa de TV3. [...] En aquella intervenció extraordinària hi havia molt del Cortázar de ?La autopista del sur? i de tants narradors i comediants que fan passar per possible allò fictici. Bertran interpretava la seva faula amb convicció, amb totes les peces degudament encaixades, de manera que es produïa la famosa ?suspensió de la incredulitat? de la qual parlava Coleridge, una cosa molt poc habitual en un còmic televisiu català. Em vaig quedar de pedra. Mai no havia vist res d?igual a TV3, i poquíssimes vegades a les cadenes espanyoles. [...] Ara porto mesos seguint els seus articles. Són curts i, amb la veu imaginada d?un personatge, s?acosten al conte. Són molt senzills, molt bons i, des del punt de vista progre, són bastant incorrectes.»

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Esta es la historia de los viajes de Antonio Beltr?n, un trabajador agr?cola migrante de M?xico. Las descripciones de los paisajes son tan precisos como los personajes de la historia, y aqu? es una oportunidad para ver lo que puede ser una faceta diferente de la inmigraci?n para algunos, ya que el autor ha conocido a muchos de los pol?ticos estadounidenses que son propensos a etiquetar a los "extranjeros ilegales?. La historia se vuelve contempor?nea mediante la introducci?n de actividades de los c?rteles que el autor considera el flagelo de M?xico. Tambi?n es una oportunidad para entender los sentimientos y preocupaciones de algunos de nuestros vecinos al sur de la frontera.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Riku Sato is in the fifth grade, when he moves from Utsunomiya to Fukushima to switch schools. Minamisoma, the town he arrives in, is virtually deserted?after the devastating earthquake and tsunami disaster of March 11, 2011, which struck the Tohoku region in Japan and triggered a nuclear meltdown, not a single soul is in sight; not in the roads, nor in the school grounds. Riku spends endless, humdrum days in this ghost town, yearning to play outside, to take his bicycle out for a spin and ride like the wind, when he comes across the otherworldly, sparkling snowscape of a mountain in northern Japan. There, in the majestic kingdom of white, he befriends good-natured grownups; encounters wild animals in the mountains; and comes into contact with a mysterious boy and his equally mysterious companion, Tonchi? ? Riku and the Kingdom of White?is a coming-of-age story of a wide-eyed boy's courage, brimming with hope of a bright and shining future. It is also the story of the lost innocence of an untold number of children who continue to live, day after day, undaunted, in Fukushima, after March 11, 2011, in the af



This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Everybody's best mate but nobody's soul mate. Milkman Peter Froggitt is stressed out and when life overwhelms him he always runs. Now he is terrified. In his new stealth-camper, he heads north, running from the memory of a dead woman, his fear of the Watcher on the scrubland and from his own interminable loneliness. In his possession is the heavy gold chain he has kept since childhood. The chain he took from The Blackened Man. At 4.30am, in an attempt to re-invent himself as a carefree man, Peter tosses his burden into a field; a bag containing the chain, along with letters from his father and his ex-wife, his phone, some keys and a mysterious photograph of a pale, scruffy child. But from a hotel balcony, Hugo Quin is watching. And when Hugo is watching, anything is possible. The Froggitt Chain is a story of ordinary people who long to belong. It is about brokenness, connection and hope. "It's rare to come across such an original voice and to find a book that is both very funny and intensely moving." K. Holmes