On Tuesday, March 25, at 7 p.m., join NYRB Classics for a celebration of Catalan literature, including Josep Pla’s The Gray Notebook, and the return of The Bridge at McNally Jackson. Series curators Sal Robinson and Bill Martin will host an evening of translation from the Catalan, featuring Mary Ann Newman, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, and translator of The Gray Notebook, Peter Bush.
The Gray Notebook is a diary chronicling the life of a twenty-one-year old Josep Pla from March 1918 to November 1919. Readers accompany Pla through the tumultuous city streets of Barcelona in an era of social unrest, through the apathetic completion of his law degree, to the local cafés brimming with unforgettable characters—all scenes recorded with a lucidity and exactitude unique to Pla. Pla carefully records the playful and witty remarks of the literary circles in his small and big cities, the wildly cynical remarks of his friends in the beachside town of Palafrugell, and the antics of the pretentious group of writers and intellectuals on the streets of Barcelona.
An NYRB Classics Original and translated into English for the first time by Peter Bush, Josep Pla’s The Gray Notebook is a masterpiece of modern literature.
McNally Jackson is located at 52 Prince Street, New York, NY 10012. For more information, visit the McNally Jackson website.