Book of All Loves

Agustín Fernández Mallo was born in La Coruña in 1967, and is a qualified physicist. In 2000 he formulated a self-termed theory of ‘post-poetry’ which explores connections between art and science. His Nocilla Trilogy, published between 2006 and 2009, brought about an important shift in contemporary Spanish writing and paved the way for the birth of a new generation of authors, known as the ‘Nocilla Generation’. His essay Postpoesía: hacia un nuevo paradigma was shortlisted for the Anagrama Essay Prize in 2009. In 2018 his long essay Teoría general de la basura (cultura, apropiación, complejidad) was published by Galaxia Gutenberg, and in the same year his latest novel, The Things We’ve Seen, won the Biblioteca Breve Prize. The Book of All Loves is his fifth book with Fitzcarraldo Editions.

‘Stylistically and thematically The Book of All Loves is daringly hybrid, swimming in and out of streams of consciousness, monologue and dialogue, and studded throughout with imagined dictionary-style entries classifying love in its countless guises. But instead of érōs and agápē, Mallo warps, fractures and expands the concepts of his subject into increasingly esoteric forms…. Ever attentive to the manipulation of language, Bunstead’s translation is highly impressive, keeping smooth pace with the author in his fits of poetry and moments of philosophical contemplation…. Agustín Fernández Mallo’s rapturous, postapocalyptic study of love is, at its core, a study of us all.’— Laura Garmeson, Times Literary Supplement