Attila

(Paperback)

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PAIRED WITH COLL'S ATTILA: This novel is about the end of Aliocha Coll's life and his writing of Attila, a novel that will be published simultaneously with Serena's novel of the same name. Covers will match, the books will be promoted as a package, and ideally this will result in more reivew features and bookstore displays.

DEPICTION OF THE ARTIST AS AN UNWELL MAN: Exploring the concept of what it means to be an artist-and what lengths one will go to for one's art-Serena's Attila also investigates mental illness, depression, and suicide in a gracious, thoughtful way.

PREVIOUS SUCCESS: Serena's first novel-centered around a Roberto Bolao-esque figure-was a hit with reviewers and booksellers, and Attila continues his project of writing about authors dedicated to their craft and their belief in the power of art despite having their work ignored or shunned.

Reviews

"Attila is a book that opens the doors to a kind of narrative very unusual in our country. A novel about passion and negativity (so opposed at first sight), but very stimulating." --Enrique Vila-Matas

"Spanish writer Serena debuts with a stunning portrait of a
Roberto Bolao-esque writer who strikes literary gold while
facing a terminal lung disease. . . . This is a wonder."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Serena channels his observations about creativity into elegant sentences (via Whittemore's translation) that evoke
the storm-clouded intensity of Bolao's prose in books like
2666. . . . A meditative tribute to perseverance and literary
integrity."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Last Words on Earth is a wistful, admirative novel inspired
by the life of Roberto Bolao. . . . Serena's novel, at times
somber, at others exuberant, captures well the ambiguities,
the inconsistencies, and the dualities of all lives, in a way
that's simultaneously both a lauding and a lament. Last
Words on Earth slips behind the authorial faade, positing impermanence as the protagonist all must reckon with
sooner or later."
--Jeremy Garber, Powell's Books

Author Bio

Javier Serenawas born in Pamplona, Spain in 1982. He has publishedLas torres de El Carpio,La estacin balda,Last Words on Earth, andAttila. He has stayed at writers residences with the Fundacin Antonio Gala (Crdoba, Spain) and Les Rcollets (Paris, France).

Katie Whittemoretranslates from the Spanish. Her translations include novels by Sara Mesa, Javier Serena, Aroa Moreno Durn, Lara Moreno, Nuria Labari, Katixa Agirre, Jon Bilbao, Juan Gmez Brcena, Almudena Snchez, Aliocha Coll, and Pilar Adn. She received an NEA Translation Fellowship in 2022 for Lara Moreno'sIn Case We Lose Power, and has been a finalist for the Spain-USA Foundation Translation Prize and the Queen Sofa Spanish Institute Translation Prize, and longlisted for the National Translation Award.