Barcelona Graffiti
Photo of Barcelona by Aeioux used under a Creative Commons license.

Javier Calvo, Wonderful World (Harper, 2009).
A novel set in Barcelona involving antique dealing, criminal gangs, nightclubs, medieval Irish paintings, Russian emigres, a precocious and disturbed teenaged girl at an Italian school, and the release of an eponymous Stephen King novel. The novel is full of unpleasant people treating each other poorly, with few exceptions, and those not put off by such things are likelier to enjoy it.

Here is Calvo’s Wikipedia entry. This is his blog. The publisher lets you take a look. Edward Nawotka (Dallas Morning News) calls it a peculiar amalgam of crime caper, literary homage and Eurotrash sideshow. Janelle Martin likens Calvo to David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino. Ryan Williams says Calvo is a satirist who sides with the villains. Sarah Weinman calls it a magical ride. Lianne Habinek was weirded out and disappointed. Shaman Drum says think of it as a midnight movie in book form. Matt McGregor thinks genre play gets the better of Calvo. Barbara Fister calls it a mashup of crime fiction, caper, dystopia, and family drama. D Reading Room took on the book. Listen to Calvo and the translator, Mara Faye Lethem, on the Ed Segundo show. Shaun Manning interviewed Lethem.

Buy it at Amazon.com.