A mesmerizing read. Medel's prose is hypnotic, it's hard to believe this is her first novel. I was completely engrossed in this story, in the shadow each generation casts on the one that comes after it, in the tension between caring for oneself and caring for others -- Avni Doshi, author of the 2020 Booker Prize-Shortlisted Burnt Sugar

Completely unsentimental and with a harshness that hides the most radiant and painful of scars, Elena Medel's The Wonders brings to life several generations of working women: it's a serene and impious novel that puts class, feminism, and the eternal complexity of family ties at the fore -- Mariana Enríquez, author of the International Booker Prize-shortlisted The Dangers of Smoking in Bed

Full of brilliant moments of illumination... The effect of [the book's] fragmentation is to make of these individual women's lives a collective picture of working-class Spanish womanhood. With light touches Medel conveys gradual but tremendous change... it has a boldly ingenious structure and flashes of beauty - The Guardian

The diminution of choices which poverty forces on people is superbly well explored in The Wonders by Elena Medel, translated by Lizzie Davis and Thomas Bunstead - The Irish Times

An ambitious and enlightening book from an acclaimed Spanish poet -- Sarah Gilmartin - The Irish Times

A beautifully written novel that examines the lives of three generations of working-class women living precariously in Madrid - Stylist

At just over 200 pages, The Wonders is a novel that doesn't waste a single word, instead basking in all the linguistic pleasures of great poetry - Sunday Business Post

Very rarely do natural talents, linguistic discipline, and emotional rawness coincide. That is the case of Elena Medel, one of the great young poets of our language, whose first novel unfolds a history of crude intimacies, subtle roughness and luminous sadness, who works from class conscience with moral force, stylistic precision and narrative honesty -- Andrés Neuman, author of 'Traveller of the Century'

Narration and style go hand in hand in a literary wonder that is absolutely personal yet reminds you of the audacity of Virginia Woolf... one of Spain's best poets has become one of its most important novelists - El País

Without falling into clichés, with a style that exudes lyricism, Medel narrates what recent Spanish history has meant for women... a narrative wonder - ABC Cultural

Spanish poet Medel's remarkable English-language debut moves from Francoist Spain into the present day, tracing a family's fractured ties over three generations... Arresting characterizations and vivid prose fuel Medel's searing look at the impact gender, class, and financial hardships have on working-class Spanish women's lives as the country is buffeted by wider cultural shifts. It adds up to a powerful story - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Elena Medel was born in Córdoba in 1985 and lives in Madrid. She is the author of three poetry collections and two works of non fiction. At 19 she founded the poetry publishing house La Belle Varsovia, one of the most prestigious in the Spanish speaking world. She is the recipient of the XXVI Loewe Prize for Young Poets, the Princess of Girona Foundation Arts and Literature Award 2016 fpr the whole of her work, and the Francisco Umbral Prize for the Best Book Of The Year 2020. The Wonders is her first novel, and will be translated into thirteen languages.

Lizzie Davies is a translator and an editor at Coffee House Press. Her recent translations include My First Bikini by Elena Medel and Ornamental by Juan Cárdenas, which was a finalist for the 2021 PEN Translation Prize.

Thomas Bunstead is a writer and translator. His recent translations include The Things We've Seen by Agustín Fernández Mallo, which was the recipient of a PEN Translation Award, and Water Over Stones, a co translation with Margaret Jull Costa.