Final Judgements Book Talk

Joan Fuster (Sueca, 1922-1992) is one of the great 20 th century Iberian essayists. His work

spanned everything from daily newspaper articles and political satire to travel guides or

scholarly works on Renaissance and contemporary Valencian writers.

Joan Fuster’s aphorisms are the pinnacle of his oeuvre. In celebration of the centenary of his

birth the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua has commissioned a translation into English of

Fuster’s Final Judgements (Fum d’Estampa Press, 2022, tr. Mary Ann Newman).

In Final Judgements Joan Fuster questions the conceits contained in conventional

wisdom, revealing moral and philosophical truths relevant to the universal human

experience. Despite the seriousness of its subject matter, this book is laugh-out-loud

funny, stripping language of its artifice and highlighting its contradictions. The

cumulative effect is a quintessentially Mediterranean kind of playfulness.