No Word From Gurb

I've read a lot of humorous books, but No Word from Gurb by Eduardo Mendoza is hands down one of my favorites. It's absurd, sharp, and delightfully unpredictable—a comedy of errors that somehow manages to be both completely ridiculous and strangely profound. The story follows an alien stranded in Barcelona, searching for its missing companion while shape-shifting through the city’s chaos. The humor is dry, self-deprecating, and wonderfully surreal, reminding me of a mix between the deadpan wit of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the offbeat satire of Jonas Jonasson’s The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. What I love most is Mendoza’s ability to turn everyday life into an epic farce—Barcelona itself becomes a character, full of quirks and absurdities, as our bewildered alien narrator stumbles through political scandals, bar brawls, and philosophical musings. The diary-style narration makes it even funnier, like reading the increasingly unhinged thoughts of a being trying (and failing) to make sense of human behavior. It’s lighthearted yet razor-sharp, and if you enjoy smart, irreverent humor with a touch of the surreal, you’ll devour this book. I laughed out loud more times than I can count, and I can’t recommend it enough for anyone who loves a good, eccentric adventure.