Blog del Instituto Cervantes de Londres

The daring and provocative novel ‘Easy Reading’ about bodies, sex, politics and disability by the prize-winning Spanish writer Cristina Morales and her first to be published in the UK.

Ángela, Patricia, Marga and Nati are cousins living together in Barcelona. As women branded as disabled who share a state-subsidised flat, they must fight every day to retain their independence and find new and inventive ways – from dance to underground zines – to stop the state from managing every aspect of their lives.

Funny and furious, ‘Easy Reading’ is an indictment of the institutions that stigmatise individuals as disabled and of the language that marginalises them. It is also a portrait – visceral, vibrant, combative – of contemporary Barcelona. But, above all, Easy Reading is a feminist celebration of the body in all its forms, of female desire and queer sexuality, and of the transgressive and revolutionary power of language.

Translated from the Spanish by Kevin Gerry Du

Cristina Morales was born in Granada, Spain. She is the author of four novels and a collection of short stories. Easy Reading, her fourth novel, was awarded the Herralde Prize and the Spanish National Book Award, and became an overnight bestseller. In 2021, she was named a Granta Best Young Spanish-Language Novelist. Morales works with the contemporary dance company Iniciativa Sexual Femenina and is executive producer of the punk band At-Asko.

‘Punk rock has arrived in Spanish literature’ El Pais

‘A force of nature’ ABC

‘Offensive, playful, transgressive, hilarious, visceral, combative, brutal, and yet somehow tender… A book that shook me to my core’ Esquire

‘The most brutal, provocative and hilarious voice in contemporary Spanish literature. Like an unexpected meeting between Kathy Acker and Camilo José Cela in a gynaecologist’s waiting room. Extraordinary’ Paul B. Preciado

Winner of Spain’s National Book Award

EASY READING, by Cristina Morales
Published 24 March 2022
by Jonathan Cape, part of Vintage | £14.99 | TPB | 9781787332676