Title: "The Loneliness of Dublín"
Author: Pedro J. de la Peña

Editorial comment:
In the 1970s, Ireland was going through difficult times; IRA terrorism, the emigration of part of its population to the United States, England or Australia, and the economic stumbling blocks prior to the country’s entry to the European Union, were part of its everyday.

All those problems were especially reflected in the city of Dublin. And it was there that the young Spanish sailor arrived, thanks to a romantic relationship that he had established with a young Irish girl named Maggy.

However, Maggy died in a car accident and the sailor knowing no English, finds himself immersed in the labyrinth of seeking survival among the places and streets that make up the infinite crossroads of the city.

All of this happens at a moment, starting in 1975 in Spain, in which the literature of James Joyce began to acquaint Spanish readers with the maze of Dublin, starting with the publication of the translation of his “Dubliners” and followed by his extraordinary novel “Ulysses”. But while James Joyce knew every bar, every remote ambience of the Irish capital city, the young Spaniard finds himself entirely lost and unable to find the significance of the space or the time in which he is submerged.

Thus, following an unending escape to nowhere, among the public clocks that adorn the most symbolic buildings of the city, the bars, the parks and the city street corners, after numerous disappointing and destructive adventures which lead him to loneliness and crime, he feels totally disoriented and overcome by his surroundings to the point of disappearing without leaving a trace.

Obviously, Joyce knew the way out of that labyrinth and was able to escape. However, the young sailor is lacking in the instruments of language, mental harmony and the interior timeframe which set Joyce free, and so the Spaniard succumbs to a very different fate.

About Author:
Pedro J. de la Peña has been a Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Spanish Literature at the University of Valencia since 1982.

Mr. de la Peña has been awarded numerous literary prizes both for his poetry and his prose. In the latter, worth mentioning are the “Ciudad de Palma Award”, in 1974,  for his novel Lobo Leal; the “Blasco Ibáñez Award”, in 1979, for his novel El vacío, vacío; the “Ateneo de Santander Award”, in 1988, for Los Años del Fuego; and the “Alfonso el Magnánimo Award” from the County of Valencia for Ayer, las Golondrinas. In December 2003 he obtained the “Ciudad de Salamanca Award” for his novel Los Primeros de Filipinas, published in 2004 (Algaida Publishers).

As a renowned and avid researcher of the literature of the last century, his professional publications have been acclaimed by the critics, among those Antología de la Poesía Romántica published by Júcar Publishers,(Colección Los Poetas, Madrid, 1984); his research El feísmo modernista published by Hiperión Publishers, (Madrid, 1989). And also, Las estéticas del siglo XIX (Aguaclara Alicante Publishers, 1994).

Mr. de la Peña has recently conducted wide research resulting in the publishing of “José Hierro: Vida, Obra y Actitudes Poéticas”. Currently he is working on a book about travels to the Far East.

The Loneliness of Dublin is his first work in English, published by CURSACK BOOKS in the United States.

More information about: "The Loneliness of Dublin"
Author: Pedro J. de la Peña
Published by: Cursack Books
Genre: Novel
Edition: First
Pages: 176
Language: English
ISBN 10: 1-933439-11-4
ISBN 13: 978-1-933439-11-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007902053
Format: 5.5 x 8.5 pulgadas
Blinding: Perfectbound
Price: $18.95 USA - Euros 15