Why is 9/11 more important to Catalans? Who was Wilfred the Hairy? When is a wolf's fart edible? Why are bumper stickers of donkeys ubiquitous in Catalonia? What explains the ambivalence of many Catalans to their war generation? Why does Football Club Barcelona have the English flag on its emblem? Does black rice taste better than it sounds?


The answers to these and many other pertinent questions are revealed in A Kiwi on the Costa Brava, Jonathan Stark's sympathetic account of a typical summer on Catalonia's most famous coast. It begins with him and his Catalan wife returning to the Costa Brava to discover their summer business in crisis just as the season is about to begin. Finding solace in Mediterranean cuisine, breezy terraces and historic landscapes, they witness the yearly transformation that the Costa Brava undergoes with the arrival of millions of foreign and domestic holidaymakers. Simultaneously the author solves a local mystery, experiences ups and downs as he attempts to improve his Catalan and works on a novel set on the Costa Brava.



Anecdotal, entertaining and humorous but also informative and thoughtful, A Kiwi on the Costa Brava allows readers to gain a better insight into a region of Europe that is both fashionable and well visited, but often poorly known and frequently misunderstood.