Groups - Todo Bajo el Cielo
Hi everyone! This novel by Spanish journalist Matilde Asensi was recently translated into English and published in the U.S. After reading a local newspaper review of the English version, I was intrigued enough to look for the original in Spanish. It is readily available on Amazon (I just ordered a remaindered copy for about $8, including shipping). You can read the first several pages on Amazon to see if it's something you'd enjoy.
It's the story of a Spanish painter living in Paris of the 1920's who receives news of her husband's death in Shanghai. She sets sail to Shanghai to claim the body, accompanied by her rather lumpen niece, now her ward, Fernanda. Apparently there are all kinds of adventures awaiting her there involving the opium trade, daring robberies, unimagined peril...
Matilde Asensi, I have just learned, is super successful in Spain where her books are bestsellers. Just from looking at the pages on Amazon, I feel her prose is interesting, accessible and literate and she really knows how to get the reader involved in the story. I can't wait to get my copy of the book and start reading.
Anyway, if anyone else is interested, it might be fun to look at passages from this book as translation exercises, as examples of interesting grammatical structures, as sources of vocabulary, as a source of information about Shanghai of almost a century ago (I gather the author is known for her historical accuracy), or just to look at the story together.
¿Qué les parece?
in the Group Books .
Comments (2) 
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anna8 & donperigo: No sé, quizá "interminable pendiente" tiene un significado más figurativo aquí y quiere decir algo como "bottomless abyss", ¿no?
anna8 & donperigo: I don't know, perhaps "endless slope" has a more figurative meaning here and means something like "bottomless abyss".
(Oops, I was answering to a previous comment by anna8 about the translation of "interminable pendiente" as "endless pitch" while someone moved the thread. I don't know where the previous comments are now. :-)
gwow is that what it meant? ill be honest id just glanced at it and come away with the impression that there was some faffing about at the local customs. note to self, do not try to speed read spanish. i had a better read of the back cover which sounded cool
heres what i see in that paragraph
adjectives preceding nouns
sorprendente quietud not quietud sorpendente presumably the suprising part is more important than the quiet bit. same with desagradable esfuerzo unless these are special case adjectives.
como si requires the imperfect subjuntive and it gets it with pudiera huzzah the system works.