Rosa Montero and Juan Goytisolo were interviewed on Writers and Company recently. As I’ve mentioned in my earlier posts on the program, the interviews have been quite good, long, and in many cases exposes authors who might not be so well known to English speakers. A case in point is Rosa Montero. I’m not familiar with her works, except her most recent that she presented on El Publico Lee, which didn’t sound that interesting to me. Yet as Books on Spain has pointed out several times, as have other critics, books written by women from Spanish speaking countries tend to be translated less. A check on Amazon doesn’t show anything translated into English. With this in mind, it was a good change of pace to hear her interview. The conversation focused on the transition to democracy, the changing role of women in Spain, and her work as a journalist (she started at El Pais when it was founded right after the death of Franco).

Also inclued in the episode is an interview with Juan Goytisolo. As he is more well known, I’ll just the interview speak for itself, and only say, it is worth listening to.