Where the Wind Comes From

Original Title: De donde viene el viento

“An acute observer of human nature, Manuel Arroyo-Stephens was a clandestine writer. When his unpublished works come to light, he will become a posthumous writer”, wrote Luis Gago after the death of this outstanding publisher in the Spain of the post-dictatorship years, discerning and indefatigable reader, and brilliant writer. De donde viene el viento (Where the Wind Comes From) brings together five unpublished pieces by Arroyo-Stephens—“Mi madre es una trucha” (My Mother Is a Trout), “Cuatro Quijotes (Four Quijotes), “Un hombre de negocios” (A Businessman), “Las ciudades” (The Cities), and “Desperdicios” (Waste)—which, somewhere between fiction and report, sparkle with his customary wit. The reader will enjoy a prose writer who masterfully blends experience and imagination and also has the rare virtue of never exempting himself from the sarcasm with which he contemplates the rest of the world.

Praises

“The unpublished writings of Manuel Arroyo-Stephens have great appeal with their humour, sharp criticism and, most of all, their precise, natural, fluid, clear, highly expressive and, without a doubt, their deceptively simple style.”
Santos Sanz Villanueva, El Cultural

“Arroyo-Stephens worked until his last day on this final book, and especially the first text, the novella Mi madre es una trucha (My Mother Is a Trout) which, told with unforgettable dark humour, is perhaps the rawest, most moving family story I know. The volume also contains his beautiful professional autobiography Cuatro Quijotes (Four Quijotes) and Cartas a Polífilo (Letters to Polyphilus), which his friends circulated with so much glee. I can’t imagine a reader who wouldn’t enjoy this.”
Pilar Álvarez, La Lectura

“His work as a writer, scant but enduring, stands out for its depth and distinctive personality.”
Ernesto Baltar, The Objective

Details

Acantilado

May 2024

371 pages

Narrative, Short Stories