The first English language release of Dublinesque by Enrique Vila-Matas pays tribute to the work of James Joyce coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the publication of Ulysees and the year in which the copyright of his writing ends.
Scheduled for a release date of the 14th June 2012, just in time for Bloomsday, Dublinesque follows Spanish literary publisher, Samuel Riba, on a pilgrimage to Joyce’s hometown of Dublin. Having edited for many great authors, Samuel has become increasingly disillusioned with modern literature and worried about the future of the art of writing. Hoping to find catharsis in the famous city through a funeral service for the death of the printed work, a new potential shadow looms out of the night.
Having just given up alcohol and suffering from the resulting anxiety of the transition, Samuel’s story is part truth and part fiction. However, with the increasing digitisation of print, it’s a topic that divides the masses, splitting them into either book lovers or Kindle geeks.
With such great work at the heart of the book it puts a lot of pressure on it to be just as credible as either Ulysees, Dubliners or Waiting for Godot. Either Enrique Vila-Matas’ Dublinesque is a brilliant analysis of modern literature surrounded by an inspired step into the world of James Joyce’s Dublin or it is a failure. With that kind of weight there is no in between.
