ALI SMITH RECOMMENDS THINGS LOOK DIFFERENT IN THE LIGHT BY MEDARDO FRAILE

Ali Smith is a writer who seems to enjoy more love and admiration than most: from devoted readers, from fellow writers and from prizes’ juries (her 2014 novel, How to Be Both, was shortlisted for five and won three). This is primarily down to her superlative talent; but it may also have something to do with getting back what you put in, for Smith is an incredibly generous champion of other writers’ work. She chose this book on the grounds that it was “the single book right now that I wish everybody knew about.”

Medardo Fraile was born in Madrid in 1925 and started writing short stories in the 1950s. He was very soon drawing comparisons to Anton Chekhov, as a masterful “chronicler of the minor tragedies and triumphs of ordinary life.” This is the first complete collection of his works in English. As Smith observed, “so little is said and so much is conveyed.”

©Alexi 2017 www.alexibooks.com

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, December 17th, 2017