Rolling fields - David Trueba

WINNER OF AN ENGLISH PEN AWARD

'Effortlessly readable and fizzing with energy, this novel is by turns quirky, funny and thoughtful' Mail on Sunday

Dani Mosca is 40 and his father has just died.

Fulfilling his father's last wishes, Dani embarks on a road trip back to his childhood village, a three-hour hearse journey from Madrid. Leaving behind the busy streets of the city for the deserted, archaic heart of Spain, Dani revisits the key junctions of his life: his conflicted relationship with a pragmatic and authoritarian father; the mystery of his birth; his school years in the repressed atmosphere of Catholic Spain; the origin of his band and its early successes; the emptiness left by a tragically lost friendship; his great loves.

Laugh-out-loud funny, deeply moving and featuring an unforgettable cast of characters - from Ecuadorian drivers to Spanish Bowie lookalikes - Rolling Fields is a novel full of the grace and messiness of life: brave, exciting and completely irresistible.

Translated from Spanish by Rahul Bery