Barcelona Noir

March 21, 2011
The 14 stories in Akashic's Barcelona volume hew closely to the bleak spirit of the noir genre, whether reaching back to the 1920s, as Andreu Martín does in the chilling "The Law of Escape," or chronicling chaotic immigrant-infused present-day Barcelona, as Raúl Argemí does in "The Slender Charm of Chinese Women." Standouts include Eric Taylor-Aragón's "Epiphany," with its shocking ending; David Barba's ghoulish "Sweet Croquette"; Teresa Solana's "The Offering," with its echoes of Edgar Allan Poe (and one of two stories originally written in Catalan); and Jordi Sierra i Fabra's "A High-End Neighborhood," in which a Filipino servant suffers the whims of a wealthy couple and their spoiled children. Francisco González Ledesma's brief "The Police Inspector Who Loved Books," about an old man with more books than he can read who's going blind and doesn't want to live if he can't read anymore, provides a bittersweet ending.

May 1, 2011
Akashics globe-trotting anthology series touches down in Barcelona, whose mixture of ancient, Gothic, and modern elements informs 14 crime stories. The 2,300-year-old city, hasnt always been able to curb the darker yearnings of its Hyde to its Jekyll, the editors write in the introduction, and this struggle between light and dark is amply portrayed by the contributors, many of whom were born in Barcelona or live there now. Each presents his or her own personal picture of the city, and as a whole, the anthology projects a many-hued sense of place. As portrayed here, Barcelona is a city that looks different from every angle.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)