Boxwood

Awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize for Literature, Cela, now well on in his eighties, is yet as crafty and craftful as ever. Boxwood, which can perhaps best be described as a non-novel, has none of the structural signposts readers generally expect: there is no exposition, no crux, no denouement. Instead we have a mix of folklore, tradition, superstition, autobiographical snatches, cooking directions, a litany of nautical disasters on the coast of Death—ships from afar with cargoes of oranges, typewriters, iron ore, oil, spices—elements of nature both cruel and beautiful, of man both saint and sinner, whales, witches, mermaids, ghosts, the exquisite, the crass all against the background of Cela's birthplace, Galicia.

Author Biography: Camilo José Cela was born in Galicia in 1916—his father, Spanish; his mother, English. He studied law, medicine, and philosophy in London and Madrid and in his younger years worked as a journalist and an actor. Cela has published over fifty books—among them The Family of Pascual Duarte, Hive, and Mazurka for Two Dead Men. Awarded many prizes, he has been a member of the Royal Spanish Academy since 1957.