The Last Dream

Narrated by Colman Domingo, Rachel Weisz, Michael Cera, Juan Diego Botto, Norbert Leo Butz, Taylour Paige, and Edoardo Ballerini

“A major literary talent’s virtuosic debut” (Kaveh Akbar, New York Times bestselling author), the iconoclastic, two-time Academy award-winning writer and director reveals his singular mind as never before in this collection of twelve remarkable stories

With this debut collection, film legend Pedro Almodóvar delivers a tantalizing glimpse into his world, formed by twelve stories carefully selected from his personal writings dating from the late ‘60s to the present. Almodóvar writes: “I’ve been asked to write my autobiography more than once, and I’ve always refused. . . . I’ve never kept a diary, and whenever I’ve tried, I’ve never made it to page two; in a sense, then, this book represents something of a paradox. It might be best described as a fragmentary autobiography, incomplete and a little enigmatic.”

Each entry reflects Almodóvar's most intimate obsessions, as well as his evolution as an artist. In the title story, “The Last Dream,” Almodóvar reflects on the death of his mother. Other entries in the collection include a love story between Jesus and Barabbas, a story of retribution that formed the basis for the film Bad Education, a manic adventure about a film director searching for painkillers on a bank holiday weekend, and a gothic tale centered around a repentant vampire.

Translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne

Table of Contents

Introduction —Juan Diego Botto

The Visit —Colman Domingo

Too Many Gender Swaps —Colman Domingo

The Mirror Ceremony —Michael Cera

Joanna, the Beautiful Madwoman —Rachel Weisz

The Last Dream —Juan Diego Botto

The Life and Death of Miguel —Edoardo Ballerini

Confessions of a Sex Symbol —Taylour Paige

Bitter Christmas —Rachel Weisz

Adiós, Volcano —Juan Diego Botto

Redemption —Edoardo Ballerini

Memory of an Empty Day —Norbert Leo Butz

A Bad Novel —Norbert Leo Butz