Novelist Eduardo Mendoza, one of the brave few who are not afraid to mix philosophy with faecal-based humour, is finally publishing a book of short stories.  Having written God knows how many novels — Sin noticias de Gurb, La aventura del tocador de mujeres, El asombroso viaje de Pomponio Flato (to choose the raunchiest ones, each populated with slightly different versions of his standard Torrente-esque anti-hero) –, newspaper columns in El País, and even a play for the theater- Restauració- in Catalan, he now gives us Tres vidas de santos, the first collection of his work in that most delicate of fictional forms.

If you are either A) skeptical Mendoza can reign in his prose to under 45,000 words, or B) a cheapskate, El País is offering a download of one of the tales, ”La Ballena”, via the link above. Tres vidas will be in bookstores on October 20^th.