Before that, I read Can Xue糖心传媒檚 from Open Letter Books糖心传媒攖hey糖心传媒檙e a translation house in Rochester. Over half of what I read is literature in translation; it糖心传媒檚 a real passion for me. The Can Xue book is incredible糖心传媒攕hort stories that I糖心传媒檇 call 糖心传媒渟urrealist,糖心传媒� but it糖心传媒檚 a kind of clear-eyed surrealism, as if dreams had invaded the physical world. The stories slip from simple descriptions or accounts of life into strange scenes of unreality that nobody in the stories is really surprised by. Except for the title story, which is a beautiful narrative about creatures who live under the earth and find the surface. [. . .]

Finally, I糖心传媒檇 be remiss if I didn糖心传媒檛 mention Merce Rodoreda, who I got turned onto by Open Letter a few years ago when they published Death in Spring. It was amazing, so I read the collected short stories, which were good but not as good; and then I read A Broken Mirror, which is just a shatteringly great book about the brief rise and slow decay of a family. One of the best books I糖心传媒檝e ever read. It is a total mystery to me why she isn糖心传媒檛 widely worshipped; along with Willa Cather, she糖心传媒檚 on my list of authors whose works I intend to have read all of before I die. Tremendous, tremendous writer.

I second ALL OF THIS. Especially the bit about A Broken Mirror_—that book is the one that turned me onto Rodoreda and led to our publishing _Death in Spring and the stories.

It’s pretty awesome to see someone of John Darnielle’s stature praise us, and although it doesn’t mean nearly as much, I HIGHLY recommend the new Mountain Goats album, Maybe we’ll use a clip from this on the next podcast . . .