After centuries of pogrom-like riots encouraged by the Church, the Jews - who have been an important part of Spanish life since the days of the Romans - are expelled from the country by royal edict. Many who wish to remain are intimidated by Church and Crown and become Catholics, but several hundred thousand choose to retain their religion and depart; given little time to flee, some perish even before they can escape from Spain.Yonah Toledano, the 15-year-old son of a celebrated Spanish silversmith, has seen his father and brother die during these terrible days - victims whose murders go almost unnoticed in a time of mass upheaval. Trapped in Spain by circumstances, he is determined to honor the memory of his family by remaining a Jew.On a donkey named Moise, Yonah begins a meandering journey, a young fugitive zigzagging across the vastness of Spain. Toiling at manual labor, he desperately tries to cling to his memories of a vanished culture. As a lonely shepherd on a mountaintop he hurls snatches of almost forgotten Hebrew at the stars, as an apprentice armorer he learns to fight like a Christian knight. Finally, as a man living in a time and land where danger from the Inquisition is everywhere, he deals with the questions that mark his past. How he discovers the answers, how he finds his way to a singular and strong Marrano woman, how he achieves a life with the outer persona of a respected Old Christian physician and the inner life of a secret Jew, is the fabric of this novel. The Last Jew is a glimpse of the past, an authentic tale of high adventure, and a tender and unforgettable love story. In it, Noah Gordon utilizes his greatest strengths, and the result is remarkable and moving.

    While to the north the traditions of the wandering herdsmen are still maintained and tracking dogs search out truffles, exotic fruits that entered the country with the Arabs flourish in the south. This Culinaria title whets your appetite to explore Spain with all your senses. It describes an incomparable panorama of cultural and culinary traditions, as well as an overview of the most important winegrowing regions of the land. Its 488 pages and more than 1,200 photographs clearly illustrate how landscape, climate, and various cultures have left their mark on the diverse cuisine of the country - from Alboraya in the Levant to Zaragoza in the north, from the omnipresent garlic mayonnaise alioli to zamburina mussels. More than 200 recipes drawn from every region ensure that the fascinating reading also becomes a feast for the palate.

    Barca has more than 500 local fan clubs spread across the world, while its championship matches attract a global TV audience. Former players include such legendary figures as Kubala, Maradona, Cruyff, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Lineker. This is Barca's story.

    What passes for paella at restaurants and even in cookbooks here is a pale imitation of the real thing, the vibrant Spanish rice dish that marries the robust flavors of olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, and pepper with short-grain rice, broth, and meat, fish, or vegetables. Penelope Casas is here to restore the glorious paella to its rightful place as a grain-based meal that will gratify the senses as well as be the centerpiece for easy, elegant entertaining.Casas presents sixty different fascinating paellas, some traditional, some her own creation, showing how easily some of the preparation can be done ahead of time with supermarket ingredients. She includes a superior collection of tapas, the Spanish meal starters, two dozen simple desserts, and a handful of broths and sauces. Her passion for paella, her clear directions, and her creative pairings of fresh ingredients make this unusual cookbook a winner.

    There are historians who have sought for the origins of the Peninsular War far back in the eternal and inevitable conflict between democracy and privilege: there are others who—accepting the Emperor’s own version of the facts—have represented it as a fortuitous development arising from his plan of forcing the Continental System upon every state in Europe. To us it seems that the moment beyond which we need not search backward was that in which Bonaparte formulated to himself the idea that he was not the successor of the greatest of the Bourbons, but of the founder of the Holy Roman Empire. It is a different thing to claim to be the first of European monarchs, and to claim to be the king of kings. Louis XIV had wide-reaching ambitions for himself and for his family: but it was from his not very deep or accurate knowledge of Charlemagne that Napoleon had derived his idea of a single imperial power bestriding Europe, of a monarch whose writ ran alike at Paris and at Mainz, at Milan and at Hamburg, at Rome and at Barcelona, and whose vassal-princes brought him the tribute of all the lands of the Oder, the Elbe, and the middle Danube...

    It is also a complex portrait of Spain under Franco. The author explores the patterns of love, sacrifice, and forbearance that mark not only her own life but those of many other Spanish women she has known.

    

    ‘Anyone interested in Spain will want this book.‘ Alan Massie, Daily Telegraph A bravura new interpretation of the course, causes and characters of the Spanish Civil War, still the twentieth century’s bloodiest internal conflict. Analysis of the Civil War has always focused on victors and vanquished, but what of those who eschewed the struggle, those who stood apart from the carnage and chaos? Was there a Third Way? Starting at the extreme right of the political spectrum and moving across it to the extreme left, using the emblematic lives of ten key individuals, Preston builds up an astonishingly vivid picture of how the War came to pass, and how those who started, suffered and stopped it were coloured by the experience. Here are brilliant psychological profiles of the communist firebrand La Pasionaria, of the canny falangist Primo de Rivera, of the aloof intellectual non-participant Salvador Madariaga, and of the enigma himself, Generalissimo Franco.‘Comrades presents us with fascinating portraits, case studies that illustrate variously nobility, arrogance, self-delusion and evil. It remains difficult to comprhend the passions that lead to civil war; but this book helps us to understand.’ Michael Portillo, Sunday Telegraph

    Barcelona, on the other hand, is not identified by one or two famous buildings as these other European cities, but rather by an entire movement of turn-of-the-century architecture known simply as "Modernisme." Familiar to Americans as art nouveau, its most famous practitioner was the artist and architect Antoni Gaudi. But the city is filled with superb examples of art nouveau in vivid color in "Barcelona Art Nouveau." This book offers a tour of 46 houses, public buildings, and monuments in the art-nouveau style, including brand-new photographs of the work of Gaudi. Visit the famous literary cafe Els Quarte Gats, which was once patronized by Pablo Picasso, who also designed the menu. Lose yourself in the whimsical curves of Casa Josep Batllo, a wonderful example of the combination of artisan tradition and richness that exemplifies art nouveau. These structures, fully restored to pristine condition for the 1992 Olympics, have been rediscovered by both foreigners and Barcelonans alike, and are captured inside and out in this fascinating record of the adventurous, undulating designs of an exciting era.

    Although flamenco music enjoys wide popularity today, the words of the songs are often lost in the passion of the performance, or because they are sung in dialect. This is a bilingual sampling of the lyrics and brief commentaries by aficionados.Will Kirkand is a San Francisco Bay Area writer and translator whose translated works include Lorca’s The Gypsy Ballads and Rómulo Gallegos’ classic novel Canaima. He is the author of a volume of short stories, Ixat Tales.

    As David Levi Strauss writes in The Book of 101 Books, "The Catalan artist Joan Fontcuberta has been constructing elaborate historical fictions out of the excess credibility of photographs for some time, effectively (and often hilariously) calling the conventions of photographic believability into question in the process. Fauna is perhaps the most fully realized of these fictions . [This collaborative project] is presented as the recovered archive of a controversial German naturalist named Dr. Peter Ameisenhaufen (the name means 'anthill' in German, just as Formiguera means 'anthill' in Catalan), who travels around the world discovering new species of fantastic creatures and recording them with the help of his photographer Hans von Kubert (Joan Fontcuberta in German). In addition to evidential photographs of the weirdly appropriate hybrid animals, the archive also includes field notes (in German), maps, audio recordings, scientific papers, and other documents.".

    D. Fairchild Ruggles offers a new interpretation, contending that the palace garden was primarily an environmental, economic, and political construct.She discusses three aspects of medieval Islamic Spain: the landscape and agricultural transformation documented in Arabic scientific literature, the formation of the garden and its symbolism from the eighth through the fifteenth centuries, and the role of the gaze and the frame in the spatial structures through which sovereignty was constituted.Although the repertory of architectural and garden forms was largely unchanged from the tenth through the fifteenth centuries, Ruggles explains that their meaning changed dramatically. The royal palace gardens of Cordoba expressed a political ideology that placed the king above and at the center of the garden and, metaphorically, of his kingdom.This conception of the world began to falter in later centuries, but patrons clung to the forms and motifs of the golden age. Instead of creating new forms, artists at the Alhambra in Granada reworked and refined familiar vocabulary and materials. The vistas fixed by windows and pavilions referred not to the actual relationship of the king to his domain but rather to the memory of a once-expanding territory.

    The highly readable texts give you concentrated information on accessing well and lesser known sites in the world of art. An image of every piece of art that is described is included, allowing readers to easily recognize the original on site. Insets on cultural-historical topics and illustrated glossaries, summaries, and timelines supplement the body text - leaving a deeper, more lasting impression of the material that is covered. Convenient compact format makes these books particularly handy to take along as a guide while viewing the great works featured within.

    At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, he was arrested and detained briefly in Pamplona as a political prisoner. He left Spain in 1938 and went into voluntary exile in the United States, where he remained until after the death of Franco. In 1978 he returned to live in Spain. He died in Málaga in 1984.Many poems in Horses in the Air were written in America; many of them have never been translated into English before. Guillén’s view of Europe from the New World, his experience as an exile and an immigrant, as well as his encounter with Spanish America and with Spain in America provide insights into our shared culture that are fresh and relevant today.

    The author describes and analyzes the development of the Falangist party both prior to and during the Spanish Civil War, presenting a detailed analysis of its transformation into the state party of the Franco regime - Falange Espanola Tradicionalista - as well as its ultimate conversion into the psuedofascist Movimiento Nacional.

    Specially-commissioned essays by leading experts analyze the historical and political background of modern Spain, the culture of major regions including Castile, Catalonia, and the Basque Country, and the country's literature. There are studies of painting, sculpture, architecture, cinema, dance, music, and the modern media. A chronology and guides to further reading assist in making the volume an invaluable introduction to the politics, literature and culture of modern Spain.

    Over 400 color photographs reveal the diversity and magnificence of Spain's heritage. A patio garden with trickling fountains combines Islamic traditions and Roman design. Monumental city walls date back as far as the eleventh century, and whitewashed buildings dot the remote countryside of the central tablelands. Everywhere, the image of the bull--a national symbol--appears, in exquisitely crafted bronze fountainheads and fine iron rings decorating doors. In Catalonia, houses with colorful facades line the waterfront, home to one of the most perfectly restored Jewish quarters in Europe; while lofty arcades rise in Gothic churches. Here, Islamic minarets adorn Christian cathedrals, and Moorish fortresses loom. From silverwork and ornate interiors to large, lush gardens: it's an unforgettable tour through a unique country. 256 pages, 400 color illus., 10 1/8 x 10.

    Her intensive musical and theatrical collaborations with members of the Spanish vanguard -- Manuel de Falla, Frederico Garcia Lorca, Enrique Granados, Nestor de la Torre, Joaquin Nin, and with renowned Andalusian Gypsy dancers -- reflect her importance as an artistic symbol for contemporary Spain and its cultural history. When she died in 1936, newspapers around the world mourned the passing of the "Flamenco Pavlova."

    Henry Kamen has compiled an accessible biographical guide to Europe in this most exciting of periods - the time of the Renaissance and the Reformation, the time of da Vinci and Erasmus, Elizabeth I and Oliver Cromwell. In over a thousand entries, which cover the whole of Europe and include politics, culture, religion and science, Professor Kamen and his international contributors, all experts in their field, shed new light on the key players in this extraordinarily rich and formative period of history.