Mac and His Trials

«The novels that I like always resemble Chinese boxes, they are full of stories», — asserts the narrator of this amazing novel, disguised as a funny diary, an essay on the writing process, a criminal investigation, and a novel of... education. Mac has just lost his job and now strolls daily through El Coyote, the district of Barcelona where he lives. He is obsessed with his neighbor, a well-known and recognized writer, and upon hearing him recount his debut work «Walter and His Trials», full of incompatible excerpts, Mac decides to change and improve this first novel that his neighbor would prefer to forget. And as the main character wanders through the surroundings, recounting the little feats of neighbors in the triumph of partly hallucinatory triviality, Vila-Matas finally breaks down the barrier between literature and life. «Playful, spirited, intricate. Perhaps this is Vila-Matas' best novel and one of the best written in Spanish». — Colm Toibin, author of the novels «Brooklyn» and «Nora Webster»