The City

An Unexpected Portrait of Madrid Through Three Women In The City, acclaimed Spanish author Lara Moreno weaves a compelling tapestry of intersecting lives in contemporary Madrid. Through the stories of three women—Oliva, navigating an abusive relationship; Damaris, a Colombian immigrant juggling motherhood and economic disparity; and Horía, a Moroccan woman seeking stability while living in the margins—Moreno crafts a vivid portrait of personal and societal struggle. With unflinching prose, The City delves into themes of love, resilience, and survival in an urban landscape shaped by inequality and cultural division. Through its intimate storytelling and sharp social observation, Moreno's novel offers a fresh and poignant exploration of what it means to belong in an ever-changing city.

Lara Moreno was born in 1978 in Seville and lives in Madrid, where she works as an editor and teaches writing. She has published the collections of short fiction Casi todas las tijeras and Cuatro Veces Fuego, as well as several books of poetry, which have been collected, along with new and unpublished poems, in Tempestad en víspera de viernes. She was awarded the FNAC New Talent Award upon the publication of her first novel, Por si se va la luz (In Case We Lose Power, forthcoming from Open Letter books), which was followed by the critically acclaimed Wolfskin and The City. Katie Whittemore translates from the Spanish. Her translations include novels by Sara Mesa, Javier Serena, Aroa Moreno Durán, Lara Moreno, Nuria Labari, Katixa Agirre, Jon Bilbao, Juan Gómez Bárcena, Almudena Sánchez, Aliocha Coll, and Pilar Adón. She received an NEA Translation Fellowship in 2022 for Lara Moreno's In Case We Lose Power, and has been a finalist for the Spain-USA Foundation Translation Prize and the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Translation Prize, and shortlisted for the National Translation Award. Alice Banks is a translator from Spanish and French based in Madrid with a MA in Literary translation from the University of East Anglia. Her other translations include Deranges As I Am by Ali Zamir, Madrid Will Be Their Tomb by Elizabeth Duval, and Double Room by Anne Sénès. She also works as an Editorial Assistant for The European Literature Network, where she writes the monthly column, "La Española," and worked as Assistant Editor on The Spanish Riveter magazine, to which she contributed several translations and articles.