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by Pedro Almodóvar
Making his English language debut, the iconoclastic, two-time Academy award-winning writer and director reveals his singular mind as never before in this collection of twelve remarkable stories spanning memoir, comedy, autofiction, parody, pastiche, and gothic fiction.
With this debut collection, film legend Pedro Almodóvar delivers a tantalizing glimpse into his world, formed by twelve stories carefully selected from his personal writings dating from the late '60s to the present. Almodóvar writes: "I've been asked to write my autobiography more than once, and I've always refused... . I've never kept a diary, and whenever I've tried, I've never made it to page two; in a sense, then, this book represents something of a paradox. It might be best described as a fragmentary autobiography, incomplete and a little enigmatic."
Each entry reflects Almodóvar's most intimate obsessions, as well as his evolution as an artist. In the title story, "The Last Dream," Almodóvar reflects on the death of his mother. Other entries in the collection include a love story between Jesus and Barabbas, a story of retribution that formed the basis for the film Bad Education, a manic adventure about a film director searching for painkillers on a bank holiday weekend, and a gothic tale centered around a repentant vampire.
"Sometimes surreal, sometimes prurient, sometimes discomfiting—and every page worth reading." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The sheer depth and breadth of the collection is astonishing, and it's made more astonishing by the economy of language. A slim volume of just a dozen stories, The Last Dream is light on embellishment or lengthy description. Almodóvar's prose is lean but evocative, elegant but grounded, and translator Frank Wynne has done a remarkable job rendering it into stylish, beautifully spare English. Almodóvar's characters, like those in his films, are full of yearning and wonder. Both for fans of great short fiction and for fans of the director, The Last Dream is a must-read." —BookPage (starred review)
"A heady mix of factual and fictitious, befitting of one of cinema's most imaginative storytellers... mingl[ing] elaborately fantastical fictions with candid personal essays." —The Guardian
"A genre-agnostic spin through the Spanish filmmaker's favorite preoccupations: doleful divas, Catholic education, rebellion, and the countercultural ferment of Madrid after Franco's rule." —Vulture
"The author's complex feelings about filmmaking form the basis for the story 'Too Many Gender Swaps,' about two lovers, a director and actor, and their mutually parasitic creative partnership. Not everything works here. 'The Mirror Ceremony' is a stiff riff on Dracula, and 'Joanna, the Beautiful Madwoman,' a 'Sleeping Beauty'–esque fable, is a snooze. But there are plenty of insights into Almodóvar's creative process peppered throughout ('To write, you must refuse yourself to others'). The director's fans will find much to admire in this potpourri of ideas and images." —Publishers Weekly
"Instantly fascinating, brimming with twisting narratives and unforgettable endings… The Last Dream stands alone as a major literary talent's virtuosic debut." —Kaveh Akbar, New York Times bestselling author of Martyr!
"The Last Dream is an inspiring testament to one of cinema's great creative forces. These stories/ allegories/ dreams/ philosophical riffs and intense personal sketches shimmer with all of the vibrance, humor, provocation and humanity of Almodóvar's entire body of work. A true delight." —Sam Lypsyte, author of the New York Times bestseller The Ask
"The stories in The Last Dream are like a kaleidoscope that reflects to you only the finest, most unexpected moments. The delicious blend of truth and fiction drops you intimately, with raw honesty, inside Almodóvar's heart. I love this book!" —Miguel Arteta, director of Beatriz At Dinner
This information about The Last Dream was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Pedro Almodóvar is a Spanish film director and screenwriter whose more than two dozen films include Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother, and Talk to Her. Almodóvar has received two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, two Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, nine Goya Awards, the French Legion of Honour, the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts, the European Film Academy Achievement in World Cinema Award and the Golden Lion.
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