THE HISTORY OF SILENCE

A work that reflects on the beauty and the risk of silence, on small unmentionable secrets and betrayals that lurk behind every love.

“I had just come back from the supermarket and I emptied the shopping bags out on the kitchen table. Irene was already boiling water for the pasta in a pan. Then I gave her a heartbroken look before announcing that I had forgotten the spaghetti. From that moment on, in our private language I’ve forgotten the spaghetti came to mean giving up on something out of a sense of overwhelming fatigue. And so, when Irene once managed to go four days without smoking, she said I’ve forgotten the spaghetti and lit a cigarette. And I said it while lying in bed, the moment I woke up, the day I decided to abandon my stubborn efforts to go the gym every morning . . . Since that fateful day we regretted a hundred times over having forgotten the spaghetti, which leads me to believe that we spend our lives giving up on things, primarily those we are able to get only by our own efforts.”

The History of Silence—winner of the prestigious Premio Herralde de Novela on its original publication in Spanish—is a novel with a splendid gallery of characters in which the author displays his implacable sense of humor and shows us to what extent life is a comedy under the constant threat of a tragic ending.

Praise for the orginal Spanish edition:
“Impeccably written. Reading that turns into pleasure, a game with no rules, from the first to the last line.” —El País
“The twin themes of this novel are love and silence. This book is a delightful discovery. Not a page goes by without some splendid, thought-provoking turn of phrase, carrying the reader effortlesly towards the end.” —Libélula Libros

About the author:
Pedro Zarraluki is a multi-awarded Spanish fiction writer who has published, novels such as The History of Silence (which scooped the Herralde Award) or Un encargo difícil (the 2005 Nadal Award-winner), all of which have been translated into several languages. As well as contributing occasionally to anthologies, he has penned several short story collections. His latest collection to hit the shelves is Te espero dentro, confirming his place as a master short story teller.

Pedro Zarraluki (Barcelona, 1954) es autor de las novelas El responsable de las ranas (Premio Ciudad de Barcelona y Premio Ojo Crítico de RNE), La historia del silencio (Premio Herralde de Novela), Hotel Astoria, Para amantes y ladrones o Un encargo difícil (Premio Nadal 2005). Tras Humor pródigo, recopilación de sus cuentos de humor, su última novela es Todo eso que tanto nos gusta. Su obra ha sido traducida a múltiples idiomas.