Naked Men

Description

How far would you go? Irene's husband has left her for a younger woman and the company she inherited from her beloved father is on the verge of collapse. Javier is a teacher of literature in a convent school who finds himself adrift when he suddenly loses his modest job. Worlds apart, they're both deeply dissatisfied with their existence and desperate for change, and control. Into their lives come the loutish Ivan, a young man from the wrong side of the tracks who enjoys an apparently inexplicable lifestyle of bling, and fifty-something divorcee Genoveva, a woman with few inhibitions and very clear ideas of how to have a good time.Introduced by their new-found friends into the world of male strip clubs and prostitution, Irene and Javier strike up a troubling relationship, teetering between affection and need, domination and self-interest, money and sex. A relationship destined to get ever more complicated, paradoxical, and ultimately tragic as their trajectories collide with tragic consequences. In the voices of these characters, Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett weaves a tale of economic and personal devastation, exploring the ways hardship and circumstance will push people to do things they never would have imagined. "Gimenez-Bartlett has based her contemporary classics on satirizing uncomfortable reality."-El Pais "A stark realist portrait of characters who are searching for their place in a world without redemption."-Culturamas "A novel as provocative as it is necessary."-El Mundo

Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett is one of Spain's most popular and beloved crime novelists. She was born in Almansa, Spain, in 1951, and has lived in Barcelona since 1975. In 1997, she was awarded the Femenino Lumen prize for the best female writer in Spain, and in 2015 she was awarded the prestigious Planeta Prize for her novel, Naked Men. Andrea Rosenberg translates from Spanish and Portuguese. Among her published translations are Aura Xilonen's The Gringo Champion (Europa, 2017) and Juan Gomez Barcena's The Sky over Lima (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016). Her work has appeared in a variety of publications.

Praise for Naked Men "Gimenez-Bartlett's stinging commentary on masculine fragility...pairs well with her exploration of feminine restraints...This provocative dive into gender, power, and class uses diverse viewpoints to craft a powerful story and an unpredictable, memorable ending." --Publishers Weekly "Gimenez-Bartlett has based her contemporary classics on satirizing uncomfortable reality. In Naked Men, which won the Planeta Prize, offense comes from the economic collapse." --El Pais "The novel spans the human condition in its entirety. Gimenez-Bartlett displays a whole gallery of diverse human characteristics." --El Cultural "A stark realist portrait of characters who are searching for their place in a world without redemption." --Culturamas "A novel as provocative as it is necessary." --El Mundo