The Barcelona Brothers

“Poet Carlos Zanón has surprised and shaken us with a transgressive novel that makes no concessions. The Barcelona Brothers speaks to us about a Barcelona in crisis, neighborhoods saturated with immigration where past and future don’t exist, where kids are strung out on drugs and alcohol. It’s everything but politically correct. The words interculturalism, integration, and tolerance don’t exist. Carlos Zanón is a ruthless reporter of the new era.” —Rosa Mora, El País

“The Barcelona Brothers…is a virulent poem about absent fathers and anguished youths with a tense and elaborate dramatic structure.” —Lilian Neuman, La Vanguardia

“For crime fans who think of Barcelona as one of the world’s most beautiful and cosmopolitan cities, it will be an eye-opener.” —Booklist

“This feverish, present-tense novel, Zanón’s first to be published in English, strives for unflinching honesty in its stark portrait of the Barcelona slums that serve as the backdrop to an inexplicable crime…Zanón sharply captures the mental detritus of his characters’ fleeting thoughts, while the tortured relationship of the native-born Alex and Epi to their North African friend dramatizes the tensions festering beneath Spain’s nominally multicultural surface. The prevalence of fatherlessness among his characters sounds a warning bell for the country’s future.” —Publishers Weekly

“A dark, nihilistic novel evoking the spirit of Dostoevsky.” —Kirkus

“Zanón’s powerful prose builds and maintains teeth-clenching tension as the story moves to a conclusion that the reader will both anticipate and dread.” —Tzer Island

“The manner in which Zanon shows us the hearts and minds of the principals, set against the violence and mind-numbing hopelessness of the barrio, is absolutely wonderful.” —Book Reporter

“The dialogue is spot-on, the descriptions are confident, even lyrical at times, and it manages to skim the edges of pulp territory while never getting too lurid. The Barcelona Brothers takes a long, hard look at what people are capable of when they have no other options, and a portrait of a modern, multicultural Barcelona, with all the tensions simmering under the touristy surface.” —Crime Fiction Lover