Alejandro Zambra (SIGNED)
€20.00
To help raise funds for our imminent move, this month we’re selling our signed Alejandro Zambra translations. There’s the added bonus of the copies also being signed by Zambra’s translator, Megan McDowell!
There’s a limited amount, so get them while you can!
…and of course we’ll throw in some merch for good measure…
ALL EDITIONS IN ENGLISH
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Categories: GIFTS, Hotcakes, Literature
Complete the look
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€10.00The Full Whammy:
Eleven Stories, Literary Prize
Eleven Stories 2018 – 2025
(the .pdfs)€10.00Get the bundle of all seven current editions of Eleven Stories in .pdf format, bringing together the shortlist from our seven previous short fiction prizes.
Don't forget, you get €2.50 reimbursed if you enter the prize, just use the promotional code in the receipt!Only the best in contemporary experimental fiction...
ABOUT THE COLLECTIONS:
‘Generous, soulful distillations. A tasting flight of prosaic kerosene. Each story ignited a flare in a forsaken corner of my mind. I can’t wait to experience more from these voices.’—Henry Hoke, 2025 Judge
‘Wonderful: some very subtle, intimate and beautiful, others wildly imaginative and deeply thoughtful.’—Ottessa Moshfegh
‘There is such energy in these stories. Such pulse!’ —Tiffany Tsao, 2023 Judge
‘Reading these stories made me feel glad for the future of short stories.’ —Anton Hur, 2022 Judge
‘In these rich and vibrant stories, the language surprises and delights. From surreal mouse proposals to the catharsis of visible grief, via the uncertainty of memory and perception, each of these stories creates a new, engrossing reality while shedding light on our own.’ —Natasha Brown, 2022 Judge
I loved reading the shortlist selection which realizes the Desperate Literature team’s ambition to reimagine and diversify contemporary writing. The stories represented are inquisitive, irreverential, critical, and fully committed to their respective creative projects. I’ve never been more hopeful for the future of fiction, and the Desperate Literature Prize plays no small part in this.’ —Waidner, 2021 Judge
‘I thoroughly enjoyed reading these submissions, which surprised me with their honest poise, their integrity, and their understated adherence to the values of literature. In the hands of some of these writers, the story form was brought to bear on the modern scene in new and astute ways.’ —Rachel Cusk, 2020 Judge
'The 2019 Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize has once again produced a memorable collection of diverse, dynamic short stories. It was a joy to read.' —Claire-Louise Bennett, 2019 Judge
‘The 2019 Desperate Literature Prize has produced an incredibly impressive shortlist of stories. It’s an exciting, powerful and original selection. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.’ —Holly Faulks, Literary Agent at Greene & Heaton
*PLEASE NOTE THAT FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS WE HAVE REMOVED JOANNA WALSH'S SHORTLISTED STORY FROM THE 2018 PDF.YOUR DOWNLOAD WILL BE AVAILABLE IN THE RECEIPT PAGE AFTER PURCHASE
Additional information
| product: | BONSAI, PRIVATE LIFE OF TREES, WAYS OF GOING NOME, CHILEAN POET (only signed by Zambra) |
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€0.00
Madrid will be their Tomb:
the English language launch
Literature FREE ENTRY 1st December 20h00 Limited Tickets - 30
We're thrilled to host the Madrid launch of 'Madrid will be their Tomb', the English language translation of Elizabeth Duval's first novel!
‘Modest and powerfully beautiful, this is writing which illuminates human mystery and lifts the reader into the air, leaving them on an edge where their convictions tremble and shake.’
—JUAN MANUEL DE PRADA. ABC.
About the book:
Two occupied buildings: one the former headquarters of the NO-DO (a Francoist propaganda outlet) that has been taken over by a small group of fascists, the other the ruins of some abandoned film studios that have been converted into the barracks of a Marxist-Leninist cell. Drifting between these two spaces are Santiago and Ramiro; two characters who, although finding solace in two polarised political groups, cross paths and change each other’s lives. Discursive and devastating, Duval’s first novel is imbued with the same traits as the era she portrays. A sad, passionate, and all too real portrait of an ever more divided world, Duval’s story, in her powerful, shocking, yet considered prose, reminds us of the uncomfortable, but somewhat comforting similarities we may find with the “enemy”.
About the author:
Elizabeth Duval is an author and the spokesperson for Feminism, Equality and LGTBI+ rights for Sumar. In 2020 she published Reina, the first memoir in Spain by a woman from GenZ, as well as Exception, a verse poem. In 2021 she published the essay Después de lo trans and the novel Madrid será la tumba. In 2023 she published Melancolía, a sociopolitical essay on how to recover hope when facing a grim future. She is also a regular contributor for national media outlets like eldiario.es, Público, El País, and La Sexta.
About the translator:
Alice Banks is a translator from Spanish and French based in Madrid. In December 2022, Alice’s translation, Deranged As I Am, by Ali Zamir, was published by Fum d’Estampa Press. When she is not translating, Alice also works as a publisher at Fum d’Estampa Press and an Editorial Assistant for The European Literature Network, where she writes the monthly column, ‘La Española’.
‘A marvellous novel.’ —NADAL SUAU, EL ESPAÑOL.
€0.00


€250.00
Jeux pour acteurs et non-acteurs
Augusto Boal
SIGNED
GIFTS, Literature, Rare items
Editions La Découverte, 1978
SIGNED.
Rare indeed to find a signed Boal! Here his Jeux pour acteurs et non-acteurs - Pratique du théâtre de l'opprimé suivi de l'expérience en France, including exercises, games and techniques for actors!
CONTACT US at hello@desperateliterature.com for more info or to book a visit!
€250.00
CONTACT US at hello@desperateliterature.com for more info or to book a visit!
€250.00


€25.00 – €200.00
Gift Certificates
GIFTSThe perfect gift for bibliophiles near and far.
Order online and we'll prepare the gift certificate and have it ready for you or the lucky recipient on the day you specify below.*
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
Jorge Luis Borges
* please note, gift certificates are valid for one year after the specified collection date. And of course, if you'd prefer us to let the recipient know about their gift certificates so that they don't miss the good news, just select the relevant option below and include the recipients email!
€25.00 – €200.00


€17.00
In Full Velvet
Literature
Sinuous and sensual, the poems of In Full Velvet interrogate the nuances of desire, love, gender, ecology, LGBTQ lineage and community, and the tension between a body’s material limits and the forms made possible by the imagination.
€17.00
"Maybe a voice from the ancients whispers to Jenny Johnson—Sappho or the Muse Euterpe—how to sing of love and death and joy and reality in as many registers as they come in life. Or maybe Johnson is just a genius." — Brenda Shaughnessy
€17.00
