Guadalajara

Guadalajara is another excellent short story collection from Quim Monzo. The highlights are “Gregor” (a variant on The Metamorphosis in which a young boy wakes up to discover himself fat: “He twisted his head to the left and saw [his family], an unimaginable distance away, motionless, observing him, in horror and fear”), “Family Life” (which imagines a social ritual where a rite of passage into adulthood is marked by the removal of the ring finger: "I want to be normal, like the other kids at school," to which the father replies, "Being normal has nothing to do with having one finger more or less."), and “Books” (in which a passionate reader is so afraid of disappointment that he can never bring himself to finish a book).