Notes for a Spanish Odyssey (Kindle Single)

Calvin Baker, author of three award-winning novels about history and the American experience, turns his attention to Europe to examine the entangled phenomena of globalization and multiculturalism amid the current recession in Spain. His poignant, astute observations, at times personal and often funny, take readers into the hidden, unexamined world of European race-relations and the shared history and culture of the countries on the Atlantic ocean. We meet an astounding cast of African and South American immigrants, Eastern European migrants, and ordinary Spaniards in their homes and their innermost thoughts as they struggle to make sense of a fast-changing world. The result is a frank, enlightening report on how Europeans see race, identity and their own future.


Baker's three novels, Naming the New World, Once Two Heroes, and Dominion, have been critically acclaimed and hailed as among the best works of fiction by an American writer in the past decade. He has taught at Columbia University, Barnard College and the University of Leipzig, Germany.