Take Six: Six Spanish Women Writers

Translator: Simon Deefholts, Kathryn Phillips-Miles   Edited by: Simon Deefholts, Kathryn Phillips-Miles   Cover design: Marie Lane  

Reviews

'Part of a wider collection bringing previously untranslated short stories to English-speaking audiences, Take Six’s opening author proves to be the ideal spokeswoman for its cause. Emilia Pardo Bazán’s impassioned tone and uncompromising plots lay bare the very misogyny that has prevented her voice from being widely heard before now. And, like any girl group worth their salt, the authors that follow each add something fresh and distinctive to the mix.
Alongside Bazán’s vehemence sit Carmen de Burgos’ lyricism, Carmen Laforet’s wistfulness, Cristina Fernández Cubas’ surrealism, Soledad Puértolas’ angst and Patricia Erlés’ biting wit. Arranged chronologically according to the year of the authors’ births, the volume doubles as an unexpectedly wonderful time machine, whisking the reader through over a century of changing styles, concerns and attitudes as it seeks to uncover a region of Spain’s literary landscape where few British readers have ventured before.'

Rachel Rees in Buzz Magazine

This welcome collection contains twenty-seven short stories by six influential Spanish women writers, written over the past one hundred and twenty years. The translations are fluent and easily readable, the editing ‘light-touch’ and unobtrusive.

One surprising feature of the stories is the constancy of the themes they address. The stories concentrate on marginalized, frustrated women, their lives stunted by male prejudice and violence. While the formats change, the key issues remain,

Sharif Gemie in BookBlast