A mixed bag if ever there was one. Some of the stories here were a struggle to get through - there seemed nothing to them - and others were not stories at all but excerpts from the writer's upcoming novel, which I think should have disqualified them from inclusion here. It's like paying for Amazon's "Look Inside..." feature. But a few were good, including "Small Mouth, Thin Lips" by Antonio Ortuno, "The Bonfire and the Chessboard" by Matias Nespolo, and the deeply mysterious "Olingiris" by Samanta Schweblin. ( )

This is a surprisingly strong collection of short stories, across the board. Granta really uncovered some wonderful new Spanish-language authors to share with us. Although there are many wonderful stories, I think my favorite was the very first one, "Cohiba' - it just flew off the page and put me deep into those places we all go in life where we are trying to learn or experience and are constantly riding the border of danger. It was just a wild reading experience - I couldn't put the story down, and I was a bit anxious to learn what happens. Not all the stories are 5-star, but all are good, and some are great. My only complaint is that were no authors from Central America and it seemed very Argentina/Spain heavy - so I looked forward to the stories set in countries I don't read about all that often. A nod to the translators too. I don't speak fluent Spanish, just a bit here or there, but the stories all felt very natural and I never felt that there was a language barrier, so I believe they did a great job bringing these stories to non-Spanish-speaking folks. ( )

“From Borges to Bolaño, the Spanish language has given us some of the most beloved writers of the 20th and 21st centuries. But as the reach of Spanish-language culture extends far beyond Spain and Latin America, and as the US tilts towards a majority Hispanic population, it is time to ask who is next in this exciting tradition.”

This is the first translated issue of Granta’s “Best of young Novelists”, chosen by a panel of six highly distinguished judges we are introduced to a cornucopia of new writing from across the Spanish–speaking world, and in the process signposts a collection of the most promising novelists around today.
All the writers chosen for this book are under thirty five, and have at least one novel, or story collection to their name. From Andres Barba (Spain) to Alejandro Zambra (Chile) this is a fantastic collection of tales with the Spanish language as the link that binds them, this ambitious endeavour unites twenty two writers from eight different countries in a format that allows you to be introduced to them via a short tale

http://parrishlantern.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/very-short-introduction-to.html ( )