Also available in audiofeaturing narration by Colman Domingo, Rachel Weisz, and Michael Cera

“Instantly fascinating, brimming with twisting narratives and unforgettable endings…The Last Dreamstands alone as a major literary talent’s virtuosic debut.” –Kaveh Akbar,New York Timesbestselling author ofMartyr!

Making his English language debut, the iconoclastic, two-time Academy award-winning writer and director reveals his singular mind as never before in this collection of twelve remarkable stories spanning memoir, comedy, autofiction, parody, pastiche, and gothic fiction.

With this debut collection, film legend Pedro Almodvar delivers a tantalizing glimpse into his world, formed by twelve stories carefully selected from his personal writings dating from the late ’60s to the present. Almodvar writes: “I’ve been asked to write my autobiography more than once, and I’ve always refused. . . . I’ve never kept a diary, and whenever I’ve tried, I’ve never made it to page two; in a sense, then, this book represents something of a paradox. It might be best described as a fragmentary autobiography, incomplete and a little enigmatic.”

Each entry reflects Almodvar’s most intimate obsessions, as well as his evolution as an artist. In the title story, “The Last Dream,” Almodvar reflects on the death of his mother. Other entries in the collection include a love story between Jesus and Barabbas, a story of retribution that formed the basis for the filmBad Education, a manic adventure about a film director searching for painkillers on a bank holiday weekend, and a gothic tale centered around a repentant vampire.

Translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne

Pedro Almodvaris a Spanish film director and screenwriter whose more than two dozen films includeWoman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother,andTalk to Her.Almodvar has received two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, two Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, nine Goya Awards, the French Legion of Honour, the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts, the European Film Academy Achievement in World Cinema Award and the Golden Lion.

Frank Wynne is a writer and award-winning literary translator. Born in Ireland he has lived and worked in Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Buenos Aires and currently lives in San Jos, Costa Rica. He has translated more than a dozen major novels, among them the works of Michel Houellebecq, Frdric Beigbeder, Pierre Mrot and the Ivorian novelist Ahmadou Kourouma. A journalist and broadcaster, he has written for the Sunday Times, the Independent, the Irish Times, Melody Maker, and Time Out.

• Publisher:Harpervia
• Publish Date:September 24, 2024
• Pages:240
• Dimensions:5.5 X 8.3 X 1.1 inches | 0.85 pounds
• Language:English
• Type:Hardcover
• EAN/UPC:9780063349766
• BISAC Categories:Literary,Short Stories (single author),Biographical,Hispanic & Latino,LGBT – General