Your Search Results

      • Literature & Literary Studies
        July 2019

        La horrible lengua alemana

        by Mark Twain

        Mark Twain fue uno de los tantos entusiastas que en el camino de su aprendizaje sufrieron con la dureza del alemán. Como escritor, con una gran sensibilidad lingüística, se enfrentó a la incómoda verdad de que había cosas que no entendía y, frustrado, concluyó que la culpa debía ser de la lengua y de su gramática incomprensible. Este libro contiene, además del ensayo homónimo, dos discursos en los que Twain profundiza sus apreciaciones lingüísticas: uno dado en Viena en 1897 ante personalidades de la cultura austriaca, como Gustav Mahler y Carl Gustav Jung; y otro donde mezcla alemán e inglés para ironizar con la complejidad y diferencias de ambas lenguas, al mismo tiempo que alaba lo que él mismo llamó “el idioma de los cuentos de hadas”.

      • September 2021

        Deutsche Einsatzdoktrin in den Ardennen; Entwicklung der Doktrin von 1870 bis 1944 in den Ardennen, Belgien.

        by Miguel Ángel Jiménez-Velasco

        Mit einem gemischten Raum-Zeit-Ansatz ist dieses Werk eine Annäherung an die Entwicklung der deutschen Operationsdoktrin von der Neuzeit 1870 bis zum Zweiten Weltkrieg (1944), angesiedelt in den belgischen Ardennen, durch die Befehlshaber wie Derfflinger, Ziethen, Seydlitz und Blücher bis hin zu Balck, Rommel, Guderian und Manteuffel gehen. Es analysiert die Entstehung und Entwicklung der operativen Doktrin (Bewegunskrieg) von Marschall Helmuth Graf von Moltke, von Schlieffen, Seekt und Manstein, und wie diese Generäle sie in die Praxis umsetzten (Auftragstaktik). Darüber hinaus werden mehrere historisch diskutierte Themen und deren aktueller Stand behandelt, wie z.B. die Revision des Schlieffenplans, der britische Einfluss auf die deutsche Panzerdoktrin, die Entstehung der deutschen Panzerdoktrin in der Zwischenkriegszeit und die operative Betrachtung der historisch vernachlässigten Ardennenoffensive von 1944. Das Werk ist nicht erschöpfend, sondern eine Annäherung an das Studium der deutschen Doktrin in der Neuzeit durch ein neuartiges Doppelprisma von Zeit und Raum. Using a mixed space-time approach, this work is an approach to the evolution of German operational doctrine from the Contemporary Era of 1870 to the Second World War (1944), set in the Ardennes, Belgium, through which commanders such as Derfflinger, Ziethen, Seydlitz and Blücher to Balck, Rommel, Guderian and Manteuffel pass. It analyses the birth and development of the operational doctrine (Bewegunskrieg) of Marshal Helmuth Graf von Moltke, von Schlieffen, Seeckt and Manstein, and how these generals put it into practice (Auftragstaktik). It also includes several topics of historical debate and their current status, such as the revision of the Schlieffen Plan, the British influence on German armoured doctrine, the birth of German armoured doctrine in the inter-war period, and the operational consideration of the historically neglected Battle of the Bulge in 1944. The work is not exhaustive, but rather an approach to the study of German doctrine in the modern era through a novel dual prism of time and space.

      • History of Western philosophy

        Kant and His Heirs

        An Introduction to the History of Western Philosophy

        by Miguel García-Baró

        Each generation has the obligation to tell the history of philosophy. It is not only a moral responsibility toward the past, but also a commitment to the future. By stressing some authors and some ideas over others, in the end we are pointing to the certitudes that uphold and justify the way we see reality and act upon it. After the first volume, centered on ancient and medieval philosophy, and the second one, consecrated to the Modern Era, this original history of thought concludes with the volume dealing with the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Kant and his philosophy mark the beginning of a new stage that extends to our own time. Different trends have appeared during this stage: idealism, pragmatism, existentialism, phenomenology, analytical philosophy or hermeneutics… and they have shaped today’s reflection.

      • Classic fiction (pre c 1945)
        February 2020

        The keys of the dodecahedron

        by Ángel Pajín Álvarez

        In the unstable Spain of 1937, where hates fought cruelly against inequities, a beautiful valley in the foothills of the Peaks of Europe lose their peace and stability to their people’s disgrace. During that cold December with mountain peaks overflowing flawless snow, squadrons of German war airplanes, from the Condor Legion, fly nearly at heads level of the terrified locals. Those engines from hell make their way to bomb the North Area, defended by brave and seasoned miners from Asturias, whose defensive bastions are located on the brink between León and Asturias, under the form of two sound and sturdy bunkers. Yet a terrible day, one of those planes falls (or is knocked down) in the village and its pilot disappears mysteriously… That fact triggers gruesome days of tortures, assaults, and murders carried out by the Luftwaffe soldiers and the Spanish Political-Social Brigade agents sent from the capital. And by a satrap of a fateful memory… in the area. Nevertheless, such sorrow is compensated as through magic: love. The love between the North inhabitants and a beautiful “princess” from that land. It is not until 1964 when a diverse group of young people made up by one Spaniard, two German persons, and one American woman, resident in the precious German town of Freiburg im Breisgrau, decide to go back to the conflict area to puzzle out all pending mysteries. And they certainly do! United by something else than the affection they had to each other and their relationship with some of the tragedy actors, these two couples bring in the positive side to all previous inequity. They do so despite all risks their trip involve and mostly in the final part of the journey. The peace, friendship, and respect between different ethnic, religious, and ideological groups would be the result of so much sacrifice and effort by the members of the new “Legion”, now made up by the noble and peaceful youth of our time.

      • Biography: historical, political & military
        March 2020

        Mujeres de novela

        Quince vidas extraordinarias del siglo XX

        by Echavarren Roselló, Sonsoles

        ¿Crees que tu madre, tu abuela o tu vecina no podrían protagonizar una novela? Pues estás equivocado. A nuestro alrededor hay muchas mujeres extraordinarias que, aunque no hayan ganado un Premio Nobel de Medicina, como Marie Curie, ni escrito un diccionario mientras criaban a sus hijos, como María Moliner, son igualmente excepcionales. Haz la prueba. Observa a tu familia, a las de tus amigos, a esa camarera que te atiende detrás de la barra de un bar o a la mujer, fuerte y decidida que ha cuidado de tus hijos o de tus padres, para que tú puedas seguir tu camino profesional en el hospital, el colegio, la oficina o la fábrica. Tienes entre manos un libro muy especial, casi tanto como estas quince vidas que son un tratado de historia contemporánea. Y que nos muestran cómo ha sido la otra historia, no la de las guerras y los tratados, sino la del día a día, los amores, los hijos, las enfermedades y las muertes. Por estas páginas transitan modistas que cosieron para la burguesía en la España de la posguerra, emigran-tes intrépidas que no dudaron en subirse a un barco o un avión para encontrar el amor en Londres o en Melbourne (Australia) o alemanas que transitaron por la Segunda Guerra Mundial y desafiaron a los soldados de la RDA en esas fron-teras de alambradas. A todas las conozco. Algunas forman parte de mi familia de mi vida, que viene a ser lo mismo. A otras no tuve la fortuna de conocerlas porque ya murieron. Pero sus hijos o nietos se han prestado a compartir su historia conmigo. ¿Aún sigues creyendo que tu madre, tu abuela o tu vecina no merecerían protagonizar una historia de novela de las de antes?

      • Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2019

        The construction of regional identities in Spain, France and Germany, 1890-1939

        by Eric Storm

        Many of the existing regional topics were forged in the late 19th or early 20th century. Painters, architects and international exhibitions -such as those in Barcelona and Seville- played a crucial role in the definition and visualization of the idiosyncratic character of each region. This pioneering book compares the process of building regional identities in Spain with that of France and Germany, showing that regionalist paintings, houses and pavilions were generally interpreted as a sample of (regional) diversity within the (national) unit. The culture of regionalism was therefore part of a new phase of the nationalization process, while its relations with the various regional movements were weak.

      • Lifestyle, Sport & Leisure
        April 2021

        Sueños de la Euro

        El torneo que reconcilió a un continente

        by Miguel L. Pereira

        As Paul Auster once said, football is the miracle that allowed Europe to hate itself without destroying itself. The ball has done more than any other political project for brotherhood in a land too used to fighting with itself. After each conflict, it was necessary for the ball to be there to make the continent a space of union and not a perpetual trench. For this reason, every time the European Championship is held, there is a part of the world that looks into each other's eyes and shakes hands. For this reason, when we write about the 60 years of history of this emblematic tournament, we are really drawing our memories, our fears and our desires as Europeans. Because the dreams of Delaunay, Panenka, Charisteas, Aragonés or Éder are also our dreams.

      • Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

        Isabelísima. The Divine Antichrist’s Monologues

        by Rafael Rubio

        In the text is Rafael Rubio “as a whole”, in flesh and blood, who, by using a unique and virtuous poetic prose is able to present a universal approach to death, to the relation with God, to madness, to dreams, to love. The work is complemented by the prodigious vision of photographer Hernán Azócar, also Chilean, who opens a free dialogue with Rafael’s poetic prose, creating a work made of a same text that is expressed both in words and images.

      • Food & Drink
        September 2020

        Envoltorios colombianos (cocina en hojas)

        Técnicas profesionales de cocina

        by Carlos Gaviria Arbeláez

        “In Colombia, the art of cooking with leaves is a legacy of our indigenous cuisine, this means that, since before the arrival of the Spaniards, the aboriginal women cook was already taking advantage of a great variety of leaves and with them, she prepared different recipes, many of them which during the colonial years were intervened by Spanish and African cooks, and thus contributed to the miscegenation and the enrichment of our current cuisine” (taken from the prologue, written by Julián Estrada Ochoa). Please get rid of the myth that cooking corn, grinding and wrapping is expensive, requires field, needs many people, or that it is Christmas. This book allows you to get a friendly approach to these preparations and that, together with the arepas, let's start cooking our dough with identity and pride.

      • Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
        August 2019

        Britannica

        by Germán Padinger

        In a future that seems close to becoming the past, the novel's characters struggle to adapt to the rapid concentration of information in a global file that can be accessed, as in a dream, through a cable connected directly to the brain: a process they call «enhancement». Young programming students, a wear social science teacher, a woman searching for her missing husband in the cloud, and a colonizer trying to build a new world populate this novel. Before them, virtual life and the ideology that «enhancement» brings will soon seem more attractive than flesh and blood, and the world will be immersed in a race towards transmigration, in transit times as technology advances. It is in this context that militants of an esoteric and nostalgic movement will try to warn about the dangers of abandoning the body, that old desire of philosophy.

      • Against the Arrogance of Those Who Read

        Texts to rethink the act of reading

        by Cristian Vázquez

        It seemed to me that the different texts that appear in this book needed each other, and that each one of them knew the exact place it had to occupy, and that its limits fitted in so well with those around it as if they were the pieces of a detailed puzzle. I also feared that this collection might be superfluous and banal. Moreover, is it not even contradictory that under the title Against the 'Arrogance of Those Who Read', the mere notes of a reader are printed? In any case, I like to think of this book as the child of that tension. And of other tensions, such as that between reading and writing. Or the one that asks if there are differences between the writers who read and the readers who write, and if so, what are they? Or the one that seeks the last frontier in the eagerness to express love for books, in order to promote reading, without falling into the trap of becoming a crude propagandist or an obnoxious show-off.

      • Archaeology
        February 2020

        THE HOLY GRIAL

        by ANA MAFÉ

        Immerse yourself in a journey into the historical past of the most sought-after relic of the Western Middle Ages. In your hands you have the path that will reveal one of the great mysteries of humanity. Questions like: Why this cup and not another? Where did Jesus celebrate his last Passover? Who sent it to Hispania? How did Chrétien de Troyes write his novel "graal" inspired by the court of Aragon? What is and what does the Holy Grail mean? These questions and many more are explained and documented one by one. The search for the Holy Grail comes to an end in this book. The key to Knowledge is in your hand. The interior will surprise you by discovering completely new information that will not leave you indifferent.

      • Fiction

        HISTORICAL

        by Selection and editing by Marta Mearin and Juan Francisco Bascuñán Illustrations: Joanna Styrylska-Gałażyn

        Historical is a journey through the lives of 15 women who made history, based on illustrations of them by Polish artist Joanna Styrylska-Gałażyn. These graphic representations are accompanied by texts of diverse literary genres, written especially for this edition by young writers of different nationalities: Chilean, Latin American, Catalan. For each character, a brief biography and a text is included that seeks to connect the reader to the woman being honored, mixing real information with fictitious events: some occur in the future, others explore the most intimate dimension of the protagonist or personify her through poetry. The illustrations and stories that make up this book seek to make visible the importance of women in the immense number of areas from which they have been systematically excluded: science, art, technology, sports, activism and academia, among others. In this way, the book concentrates different aspects of feminist struggles capable of transcending time and space.

      • Lifestyle, Sport & Leisure
        October 2019

        Green au naturel

        Drawing techniques for nature illustration

        by Santi Sallés

        Capturing the beauty of nature and learning how to distinguish the infi nite variety of its forms and colours can be a real challenge, but it is also a source of endless pleasure for those who love drawing and nature. Santi Sallès runs through all the techniques and resources you need to be able to render the beauty of plants, fl owers, trees, and natural landscapes.This book covers mediums such as pencil, watercolour, acrylic, inks and gouache, and how they can be used to render nature, exploring elements and settings such as plants, trees, fi elds, forests and urban green areas, while also covering topics such as digital retouching and digitalisation. Verde al natural is a complete practical guide to drawingand painting all things green.

      • Fiction
        November 2015

        El plan Bérkowitz

        by Mario J. Les

        The autumn of 2001 has barely begun. An elderly prisoner wakes up in his cell like every morning since an eternity. Tired of the endless confinement, he awaits for his own death as the only way out from the nightmare that haunts him. During the summer of that same year, three young men, partners in a modest audiovisual company, are hired by an eccentric millionaire to make some nature documentaries in Kenya. Excited, they face the opportunity of their lives: a dream job and the possibility of refloating his battered economy. However, they will soon discover that not all that glitters around their patron is gold. In the troubled Germany of 1938, Eyal Bérkowitz was one among hundred Jewish prisoners who were transferred from the Dachau concentration camp to the newly opened Flossenbürg. There they will work from sunrise to sunset in the neighboring quarry, extracting the granite necessary for the constructions that Albert Speer has designed for Hitler's imperialist Germany. The Jewish group, with Bérkowitz leading, will suffer in their flesh the abuse of power by the head of their barracks, Ludwig von Häussler, captain of the SS. With the background of World War II, the attack on Reinhard Heydrich and Operation Valkyrie, Eyal Bérkowitz will devise a risky plan that can save his own life ... and mortgage that of others. * * *  Apenas comenzado el otoño de 2001, un anciano prisionero despierta en su celda como cada mañana desde hace una eternidad. Hastiado de ese interminable encierro, aguarda su propia muerte como única salida a la pesadilla que le atormenta. Durante el verano de ese mismo año, tres jóvenes, socios de una modesta empresa audiovisual, son contratados por un excéntrico millonario para realizar unos documentales de naturaleza en Kenia. Entusiasmados, se ven ante la oportunidad de sus vidas; un trabajo soñado y la posibilidad de reflotar su maltrecha economía. Sin embargo, pronto descubrirán que no es oro todo lo que reluce en torno a su mecenas. En la convulsa Alemania de 1938, Eyal Bérkowitz forma parte del centenar de presos judíos que son trasladados del campo de concentración de Dachau al recién inaugurado Flossenbürg. Allí trabajarán de sol a sol en la cantera vecina extrayendo el granito necesario para las construcciones que Albert Speer ha proyectado para la Alemania imperialista de Hitler. El grupo judío, con Bérkowitz a la cabeza, sufrirá en sus carnes el abuso de poder por parte del jefe de su barracón, Ludwig von Häussler, capitán de las SS. Con el trasfondo de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, el atentado contra Reinhard Heydrich y la Operación Valkiria, Eyal Bérkowitz ideará un arriesgado plan que puede salvar su propia vida… e hipotecar la de otros.

      • Biography & True Stories
        December 2020

        Amazonas con pincel

        by Victoria Combalía

        This book proposes a fascinating, clear and didactic journey through the life and work of women artists. Camille Claudel, Frida Kahlo or Dora Maar, among others, occupy the pages of this book illustrating a wide time period and their corresponding styles, from Impressionism to the 1940s of the 20th century.This work constitutes a corrected and enlarged part of Amazonas con brush, a book published in 2006. The texts seek a balance between the historical importance of the creators and the interest in their life, which sheds much light on the difficulties of being a woman and artist at the same time. For this reason, special attention has been paid to their working conditions, their success or neglect of their careers, and those who were able to encourage them or, on the contrary, silence them. They fought, like men, to express their vision of the world and renew artistic language, but in a social context far removed from equal opportunities. This book written by Victoria Combalía was in 2006 the first publication that was published in Spain focused on women artists.

      • Literature & Literary Studies

        Music against walls in the Arab-Israeli conflict

        by Ana Arambarri

        With an agile, precise and sustained style Música Contra los Muros explores the influence of music on the human being in extreme circumstances. Different choral voices immerse the reader in the geopolitical labyrinth of the Middle East and tell a true and little-known story: that of famous musicians who canceled all their commitments and voluntarily traveled to Israel to encourage their compatriots who were fighting at the front. Against this backdrop, suggestive narrative threads are woven: the passionate romance of the pianist Daniel Barenboim with the cellist Jacqueline du Pré during the Six Day War; the account of Israeli soldiers, whose voices were censored for forty years, forced to participate in a war in which they did not believe; or the torn lives of thousands of Palestinians who, since the occupation, lost the right to a decent and dignified life. Hand in hand with a narrative strategy that recalls the New Journalism that emerged in the sixties, a reconciliation proposal is offered: the case of the West-Eastern Divan orchestra, made up of Arab, Israeli and Palestinian musicians, shows that thanks to music, coexistence is possible. Edward Said, a Palestinian thinker and philosopher, asked himself: Who knows how far we are going to be able to change the thoughts and convictions of these young people thanks to music? The energy of this interrogation continues to challenge the possibilities of the present, while confirming the success of an experience as unusual as it is fascinating.

      • Fiction

        Rewind

        by Juan Tallón

        SHORTLISTED FOR IV PREMIO BIENAL DE NOVELA MARIO VARGAS LLOSA 2021 -   One Friday in May, on what is shaping up to be a perfect day, there is a strange explosion in a building in Lyon. One of the flats in the now ruined building was occupied by a group of students from various countries who were having a party. Paul, student of Fine Art; Emma, tormented by the tortuous history of her Spanish family; Luca, fascinated both with mathematics and with the cyclist, Marco Pantani; and Ilka, a student who left Berlin with nothing more than a guitar on her back: these are the tenants of a house that was a popular meeting place for the city’s students. In the neighbouring flat, also hit by the explosion, lives a quiet Moroccan family, whose members are apparently well-integrated into French life. The novel explores events from various points of view. Through five narrators – victims and witnesses – we discover what happened that Friday night and the consequences that unfolded over the next three years, until their accounts have covered every hidden aspect of the explosion.   Rewind explores whether it is possible to rewind events. And examines our personal ghosts, the role of chance, the people who in the end we do not become, the secrets that must or must not be told, and our capacity to remake ourselves when we are broken. This novel is an espionage operation that investigates the mechanisms of life. How it changes without warning, turns, throws you into the air and destroys you when you are least prepared for it. And, just as mysteriously, how – if you survive everything life has to throw at you – it then allows you to remake yourself and keep moving forward.

      Subscribe to our

      newsletter