Frankfurt Book Fair 2015

Frankfurt Book Fair 2016
MY MEMORY IS STRONGER THAN YOUR OBLIVION
(Mi recuerdo es más fuerte que tu olvido) (Planeta)
Paloma Sánchez-Garnica
©Asís Ayerbe
Paloma Sánchez-Garnica
(Madrid, 1962) is a History and Law
graduate. She is the author of El gran
Arcano (The great Mystery) (2006),
La Brisa de Oriente (The Eastern
Breeze) (2009), and her novel El Alma
de las Piedras (The soul of the stones)
(2010) was a big hit with readers with
five editions being published. La Sonata del silencio (Sonata of silence)
(2014) established her among critics
and readers as a writer of great literary character. Her novels have been
published and have enjoyed considerable success in several countries,
such as Brazil, Italy and Portugal. Mi
Recuerdo es más fuerte que tu olvido
(2016) is her latest release.
RELEASE DATE
7th. JUNE 2016
ON ITS SIXTH EDITION
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BEST-SELLERS
RANKING
SINCE RELEASE
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BOOK TRAILER
WOMEN´S FICTION
UP-MARKET NOVEL
FERNANDO LARA AWARD 2016
Independent, with a brilliant career as a judge respected by everyone that surrounded her… Carlota had
it all to be happy. However she always missed out on one
Christmas. When she turned twelve and her mother revealed to her the terrible secret she had been keeping all
those years, Carlota knew that nothing would ever be the
same again. The word “bastard” sticks to her as a stigma. The word “family” will never have the same meaning
again. Decades later, a phone call from her dying father
will leave her torn between the craving desire of discovering it all and the instinctive impulse of running away and
staying clear of her family’s harrowing truths.
A family saga set in Madrid, where members are trapped between secrets, lies, memories and oblivion.
A novel where female protagonists are forced to ask - and answer- the terrible
question: should truth be told if the past cannot be changed or is silence preferable
in order not to turn the future into a burden?
A novel about female social status and its evolution through the conflicts and
dilemmas of three generations of women.
A novel about the individual capacity of changing our fate in pursuit of happiness,
no matter how elusive this may be.
An optimistic novel about forgiveness: how liberating it is to forgive but also how
freeing it can be to dare to ask to be forgiven.
My memory is stronger than your oblivion (Mi Recuerdo es más fuerte que
tu olvido) is marvellously written with a cadence and a precision in language that
characterizes Paloma Sanchez-Garnica’s literature, author of La Sonata del Silencio
(Sonata of Silence). Complex female protagonists drive this saga of secrets and lies
while the plot stirs up the reader’s curiosity all the way through an irrepressible wish
to eventually sort out those terrible family secrets.
In the author’s own words, My memory is stronger than your oblivion (Mi Recuerdo es más fuerte que tu olvido) this is her “most personal novel so far. It has
been written from the maturity granted by the years, from the readings that keep
accompanying me, from my own recollections, the memory I have of everything that I
have seen, heard, felt, even from all those things that I have forgotten.”
In the readers’ opinion:
“Once again Paloma Sanchez-Garnica demonstrates her artistry by giving a great narrative pace to a plot full of intrigue and secrets, to a growing mystery that keeps us
trapped in the story. She gives birth to characters utterly sophisticated and real; the
plot is brilliantly hatched with a very clear, nimble and direct prose along with some
elaborated dialogues which makes it a veracious read, as a result of both its content
and its characters.” Blog Leyendo y leyendo
“A brilliant work of investigation combined with a great discriminating intelligence. “Mi recuerdo es más fuerte que tu olvido” definitely marks a step forward in the
author’s literary career. I will certainly read every book that she is to publish as I will
surely find in them an enjoyable mix of entertainment, emotion and reflexion.”
Blog Un libro en las antípodas
“Mi recuerdo es más fuerte que tu olvido is an impressive novel about misguides lives, about the importance of forgiveness as a source of all meaningful existence, as
well as an allegation against women’s mistreatment. A must-read.”
Francisco Javier Rodríguez Álvarez, bookseller
1
SONATA OF SILENCE
(La sonata del silencio) (Planeta)
WOMEN´S FICTION
THE SAVOUR OF THE CLASSICS
Paloma Sánchez-Garnica
©Asís Ayerbe
Paloma Sánchez-Garnica
(Madrid, 1962) is a History and Law
graduate. She is the author of El gran
arcano (The great mystery) (2006),
La brisa de Oriente (The eastern
breeze) (2009), and her novel El alma
de las piedras (The soul of the stones) (2010) was a big hit with readers
with five editions being published.
Las tres heridas (The three wounds)
(2012) established her among critics
and readers as a writer of great literary character. Her novels have been
published and have enjoyed considerable success in several countries,
such as Brazil, Italy and Portugal. La
sonata del Silencio (2014) is her latest
release. In 2016, her latest novel Mi
recuerdo es más fuerte que tu olvido (My memory is stronger than your
oblivion) has received the 2016 Fernando Lara Award for novel.
ON ITS FIFTH EDITION
OVER 30.000 COPIES
SOLD IN SPAIN
RIGHTS SOLD
Italy (Piemme)
The friendship between Rafael Figueroa and Antonio
Montejano, misplaced loyalty, mutual betrayal, support,
and the decisions made by each of them, weave their
own destiny along with that of their families. Both started
out on the same social playing field, with similar prospects, but life leads them along very different routes. Antonio marries Marta Ribas, a young, beautiful, intelligent
woman who dreamed of becoming a pianist and giving
concerts around the world, a dream that was stifled in favor of the marriage and her longing to become a mother.
Rafael Figueroa very soon becomes a father, but loathes
his wife and desperately loves another woman.
Life maintains Rafael on a pedestal of power, while
Antonio plunges into hellish depths, dragging his family down with him. Unwell, stripped of his house and his
livelihood, he mostly survives off handouts from Raphael, who offers his spurious assistance in a sinister attempt to keep the Montejano-Ribas couple dependent and
suppressed. Caught between the two friends, Marta feels that life is slipping from her
grasp, forced to give up everything she considers her own.
Everything that happens to the parents has an effect on the children in one way
or another. Elena Montejano and Julia Figueroa have been friends since childhood,
now they are eighteen and starting to discover love and sex. Their lives fall apart and
are rebuilt, always subject to the decisions of others. Basilio, Julia’s brother, is a young
man with seemingly good prospects who gets carried away by bad company and falls
into the dangerous world of drugs and prostitution networks. His decisions critically
influence his own life as well as Elena Montejano’s fate.
Marta has no option but to start working, exposing herself to neighborhood gossip and her husband’s outrage, as his manly pride is dented. But Marta is presented
with an unexpected opportunity that will enable her to secure her own survival and
that of her daughter, and at long last find her place in the world.
Sonata of silence (La sonata del silencio) is a novel about passion, jealousy
and cherished dreams. It is a story of post-war Spain, chestnut sellers and coalmen,
cocktails in Chicote and black-market nylon stockings. It is an everyday building in
which wealth and poverty, success and failure, are separated by nothing more than a
thin wall.
AUDIOVISUAL RIGHTS
Spanish national public
television broadcaster TVE,
has added to its range of
fiction with La sonata del
silencio, adapted by Frade
Producciones from the novel
by Paloma Sánchez-Garnica,
and set in the post-war years,
starring Marta Etura, Eduardo Noriega and Daniel Grao.
The production will consist of
nine episodes, with a budget
of €5.8 million and is scheduled to be broadcast on TVE’s
Channel 1 at prime time in
February 2016.
About La sonata del silencio reader’s have said:
“A heart-rending novel that I lapped up in two days. The story is beautifully put
together, you can’t put it down. A must-read.”
“I loved it and it has left me with a desire to read more novels by this author.”
“Exquisite. I’ve had a wonderful time reading this.”
“This is the best book of this genre that I’ve read in a long time.”
“It’s essential to read stories like this, in order to realize how much women have had
to struggle to obtain the freedom that we now enjoy, although there are still many
countries in which the problems tackled in this novel continue to blight the lives of
millions of women. I thoroughly recommend it.”
2
LAND WITHOUT MEN
WOMEN´S FICTION
UP-MARKET LITERATURE
THE SAVOUR OF THE CLASSICS
(Tierra sin hombres) (Planeta)
Inma Chacón
©Joseba Osés
Two sisters, Elisa and Sabela, grow up in a small village near Ferrol in the Galicia region (in the North of Spain)
where their mother Rosalía, a poor milk-seller brings them
up on her husband Mateo, who emigrated to America to
set up a business that will never get off the ground. The
only thing he left to his wife is his deaf brother Manuel,
who helps her raise her daughters with respectful and
plain kindness. When Rosalía starts planning her daughter Elisa’s wedding with Eloy, the only secondary school
graduate in town, she does not take into account the fact
that Sabela is already in love with him and that handsome
miner Martín has other plans for Elisa.
Inma Chacón
(Zafra, Badajoz, 1954). Inma Chacón
has a PhD degree in Media Studies
from the Complutense University of
Madrid (Spain). She teaches Documentation at the Rey Juan Carlos
University. Founder and director of
online journal Binaria: Revista de
Comunicación, Cultura y Tecnología (Binary: Journal of Communication, Culture and Technology). La
Princesa india (The indian princess)
was her first foray into the world of
fiction, followed by Las filipinianas
published by Alfaguara and Nick, a
young-adult novel about a powerful
love story between teenagers on the
Internet. She has also published various books of poems: Alas (Wings),
Urdimbres (Warps), Antología de la
Herida (Anthology of the wound) and
Arcanos (Arcanes). In 2011 she was a
finalist of the prestigious Planeta Prize with Tiempo de arena (well above
100.000 copies sold in Spain), a passionate story about female heirs of a
Spanish landowner at the end of the
XIXth century. In 2013 she released
Mientras pueda pensarte (While I’m
still able to think about you) published in Spain by Planeta and soon
translated into Italian (Salani). She
also wrote and published Voces (Voices), a personal anthology of short
stories, and plays such as El laberinto y la urdimbre (The maze and the
warp) and Sí, vale, vale, chao (Ok, ok,
bye) which were performed to great
public acclaim. In 2016, she wrote, together with José Ramón Fernández,
Las Cervantas, commissioned by the
National Library to celebrate Cervantes’ fourth centenary anniversary. The
play is being performed in Classical
theatre festivals of Alcalá de Henares, Cáceres and Almagro, among
others.
Tierra sin hombres (Land without Men) is a family
saga full of intrigues, set at the turn of the twentieth century in Galicia in a small village rife with superstition and gossip, a land of widows of
living men who see their husbands emigrate in search of a better life, a dream that
sometimes comes true and sometimes comes to haunt them all.
......
“Elisa snuggled up against her man’s shoulder thinking about her mother
and her grandmother. Nothing had changed since they watched their husbands
leave for the first time. Widows of living men who never knew when mourning
would end.
Now it was her turn to be up all night, to watch endless days go by, staring
at the sea, that constant presence that would separate her from Martín, who
knows for how long and how many times the cold bed, the uncertainty, time
flying by in such a way it would not even be counted in weeks nor months nor
years but just her husband’s departures and arrivals.
History repeating itself.
-
It’s going to be a girl –she said holding back her tears-, and we’ll call her
Jovita, just like my grandmother.
-
Why a girl?
-
Because we need more women on this land without men”.
RELEASE DATE
SEPTEMBER 13th. 2016
TOP-TITLE OF PUBLISHER PLANETA
......
INMA CHACÓN WAS PLANETA AWARD FINALIST IN 2011
WITH HER NOVEL TIEMPO DE ARENA (Time of sand),
WHICH HAS SOLD WELL ABOVE 130.000 COPIES IN SPAIN ALONE
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BOOK TRAILER
3
LOVE UPSIDE DOWN (El amor del revés) (Anagrama)
Luisgé Martín
©Rai Robledo
Luisgé Martín
(Madrid, 1962) has a degree in Spanish Language and Literature from the
Universidad Complutense of Madrid
and an MBA in Business Management
from the Instituto de Empresas. He
has received the Ramón Gómez de la
Serna Award for narrative, the Antonio
Machado and Vargas Llosa Awards for
short stories and the Llanes de Viajes
award. He has published various novels in Anagrama : La Mujer de sombra (Woman in darkness, 2012) that
was immediately considered a masterpiece: “A great book. Awkward.
Brave.” (Marta Sanz); “An unexpected way of facing journeys along the
edge of the abyss.” (Enrique Turpin,
La Vanguardia); “To stop reading is
just as difficult as not to watch the car
crashed against the shoulder.” (Rafael
Reig); “Luisgé Martin’s ability consists
in achieving conditions of horror without arousing the reader’s drastic rejection by nourishing a good novel.”
(J. M. Pozuelo Yvancos, ABC); “A truly
beautiful and difficult love story.” (Javier Goñi, Mercurio). Also La misma
Ciudad (The same city, Anagrama,
2013): “A splendid psychological and
existentialist novel about a man who
takes advantage of 9/11 to change his
identity.” (Ángel Basanta, El Mundo);
“An adventure story about the major
adventure that remains to be lived
for most of us: changing life.” (Vicente Molina Foix, Tiempo); “Superb.
We are delighted that he keeps walking on the darkest side of this weird
thing that is life.”(Bernardo M. Briz,
Shanguide). And La vida equivocada
(The Wrong Life, Anagrama, 2015):
“A powerful indignation in shattered
life.”(Francisco Solano, El País); “Decisive questions about life, identity
and death are tackled in a meaningful way.”(Nadal Suau, El Mundo). “An
outstanding novel.” (Jesús Ferrer, La
Razón).
He has published various novels and
tales books with prestigious Spanish
publisher Alfaguara.
www.luisgemartin.es
AUTOFICTION
Up until now, Luisgé Martin had been disseminating
biographical details into his novels. In this book however,
he turns his own life into the main subject and makes it
exemplary, according to the classical acceptation of the
word: his own experience allows us to glimpse the weakness and greatness of the whole human kind; its miseries,
its ambitions and its achievements. The outcome of his
tenacity is a work of overwhelming frankness and exceptional literary quality, which recalls decades of hiding, trying out and exploring; a journey towards self-awareness,
painful at first though eventually freeing, an intimate and
daring portrait, a magnificent contribution to autobiographical literature.
Love Upside Down (El amor del revés) is the soulful
autobiography of a young boy who becomes a teenager
and suddenly discovers that his heart is rotten by a malignant illness: homosexuality.
“In 1997, when I turned fifteen, I reached the absolute certainty that I was homosexual, I swore to myself, terrified, that nobody shall ever know about it. It was a
promise just as solemn as Scarlett O’Hara’s in Gone with the wind. Nevertheless, in
2006, I got married to a man in a civil wedding in front of a hundred and fifty guests,
among which were my childhood-friends, my schoolmates, my colleagues and my
whole family. During the twenty-nine years that went by from one date to the other, I
went through Gregorio Samsa’s reverse metamorphosis: the cockroach I used to be
had slowly turned into a human being.”
Love Upside Down (El amor del revés) is the story of a way of perfection, which
tries to unveil, far from any stereotypical or moralistic considerations, the nude intimacy of someone who suddenly feels removed from social norms and tries to survive among them. The author tells his very own story with a disarming sincerity that
can be hurtful sometimes: the discovery of his sexual condition, psychological issues
which arouse from his maladjustment, the Conductual therapy he did to rectify his
sick tendencies, his introduction to sex, his first love affairs, his first contact with the
LGBT world and his late and progressive discovery of happiness, “the exact value of
tenderness”.
Love Upside Down (El amor del revés) is also the portrait of a society infected
by intolerance and prejudice, which looks for imaginary illnesses to delimit its own
moral territory.
RELEASE DATE
SEPTEMBER 21st. 2016
“A mesmerizing, moving journey through the shadows of intimacy and the mask of
fiction, the thrive for happiness and the various shapes of failure”.
Rosa Montero, writer
“Luís and I are friends. I thought I knew everything about him. I was wrong: I had no
idea about his darkest thoughts nor about his dazzling capacity to name them”.
Marta Sanz, writer
“A painful, generous and much needed book that delivers personal experience as a
true gift to the reader. Besides, it is wonderfully written, with elegance and sensitivity
in abundance”.
Sara Mesa, writer
4
ROUGHNESS (Aspereza) (Catedral)
Cristina Redondo Alonso
LITERARY SENSATION
UP-MARKET LITERATURE
Aspereza in the authors words:
© David Doro
Cristina Redondo Alonso
Born in 1978, she has been working
in cultural production and management since 2001. Since then she has
been involved with music and theatre
projects, always combining her professional career with her writing. She
was in charge of cultural activities at
the Centro-Museo ARTIUM of Vitoria-gasteiz from 2006 until 2012. Currently, she is the production director
of Smedia, specialized in managing
activities and programming for various theatres in Madrid.
As a writer, she is the author of four
plays: La virtud de la torpeza (The
virtue of clumsiness) and Delirare,
which were both premiered in Madrid in 2012 and 2014 under the direction of Fernando Soto, and the
unpublished Tigre Blanco (White
tiger) and La Viga (The beam). She
has written various novels one of
which was published in 2012 under
the title JAMBALAYA by Baile del
Sol. She has collaborated with artists
in various collective creations among
them Errekan, a project by the centre
for creation AZALA (Vitoria, Spain)
based on her text Recorrido interior
por las habitaciones de una casa con
vistas a un río (Inner visit through the
rooms of a house with a river view)
and including different contemporary artists from the Basque Country.
She studied Geography and History,
Production and Stage Management
as well as physiotherapy.
Roughness (Aspereza) is the story of an endless
escape, that of Olivia, who was banished from her own
home after revealing a secret that rewrites her family’s relationships. Olivia’s childhood, ruled by the magnetism of
an unstable mother, her bewildered siblings who are unable to understand that which has not been explained to
them, and a father who diligently provides for them from
afar, lead her to a series of rebellious episodes. From her
early trip to Los Angeles until her tours through Madrid’s
shady nightlife of the nineties, Roughness (Aspereza)
follows the cracks of a woman who is used to living on
the edge and has seen it all.
Now that she has become a well-known poet, comfortable and well-off, she travels to Canada to take care of Aline, the daughter of
her dead lover. On this trip she will have to face up to her ruins, her secrets and her
most atavistic fears: to recognise in herself the reflection of her mother’s frailty and
grandeur.
She knows that her poetry is the only cosmic and stellar reference that holds her
ethereal body on that side of the world. The side of orthodoxy. What a paradox! because this woman is the exact opposite of orthodoxy. Olivia is a water-lily, what do I
know?! A stranded dolphin, an unexpected spring, a geyser… As for the rest: people
and things, they are mere accidents set to give shape to her talent.
Olivia is her mother’s daughter, heir to her same trembling and magnetism, - Fear
and trembling by Kierkegaard- resignation against rebellion. She defines herself
through opposites. Olivia isn’t Adela, but she is so very similar to her…
Everything that surrounds Olivia is pure roughness. Roughness her childhood under the shelter of an incomprehensible mother, roughness her siblings, pride and
puberty, roughness her father, caring and silent, her relationships of love, of sex, of
infinite sunrises, roughness her affections, roughness her love to Jorge, to Aline, to
her lover. Roughness even herself. Olivia remains the centre of some cracks that keep
moving and end up causing unbearable earthquakes. She lives in a constant state of
war but she doesn’t care, she seems at ease with any kind of violence.
I got literally obsessed with one sentence: “Fuck you Olivia” and a setting that
included a huge table full of silverware, food and things. Long before I got to know
who Olivia was, I was already the witness of a crucial event in her life: the banishment
from her own house.
We tend to think about home as our shelter, a place we always come back to after
battle, a place where we swear eternal love and surrender to sleep. Nothing bad can
happen to us at home.
But being banished from paradise sentences you to eternal hell. I was interested
in delving into this feeling of helplessness you get when you are ejected from where
you belong.
RELEASE DATE
NOVEMBER 2016
5
THE HOUSE AND THE ISLAND
THE ONE INDISPENSABLE NOVEL
TO UNDERSTAND CUBA
OF THE TRANSITION
(La casa y la isla) (AdN Alianza de Novelas)
Ronaldo Menéndez
©Daniel Mordzinski
Anabela and Rebeca share a secret of love and betrayal from their adolescent years. Decades later, their paths
cross again thanks to a Cuban revolutionary young doctor, who has decided never to practice again nor to ever
leave his house. This isolation becomes the core of a frenetic story to which the author takes part as just another
character of the novel by putting together the biography
of those three protagonists.
Ronaldo Menéndez
(La Habana, 1970) Founder of the
creative writing school Billar de Letras in Madrid, city where he has
been living for the last ten years. He
is considered to be a reference in current Cuban literature. His novels Las
Bestias (Beasts) and Río Quibú (Quibú river) have progressively become
cult books. His then latest novel, Rojo
aceituna (Olive red) was enthusiastically received by readers and critics.
He has published more than ten
books, among which: La Piel de Inesa
(Inesa’s skin) Lengua de Trapo International award for novel, the already
mentioned Las Bestias (Beasts) and
Río Quibú (Quibú river) and youngadult fiction El agujero de Walpurgis
(The Walpurgis hole). Also shortstory novels El Derecho al pataleo de
los Ahorcados (The legitimate kick of
hanged men) awarded with the Casa
de las Américas International prize,
De modo que esto es la muerte (So
that is death), Covers, En soledad y
compañía (Alone and surrounded).
He was part of the group Bogotá
39, which gathered thirty-nine Hispanic American writers under forty
with outstanding career paths. Some
of his writing has been translated
into Italian, Portuguese and French.
He has collaborated with different
medias, reviews and chronicles in
Europe, the U.S. and Latin America,
among which: Esquire, Etiqueta Negra, SoHo, Nouvelle Revue Francaise, Letras libres, Osamayor, Quimera,
Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, Eñe,
Zoetrope, and prestigious Spanish
newspaper El País.
www.ronaldomenendez.com
The house and the island (La casa y la isla) is the
post Cuban revolutionary novel that up until now has
never been written: humour, psychological drama, overflowing passion… It provides a deeper understanding of
the complex reality of the island told with a solidly elaborated language and frantic pace. Bohemian and decadent Habana city, shimmering and sexy, where “watched” writers live side by side
with exiled Latin Americans and socialist bourgeoisie. Many issues are discussed from
different points of view such as hope and exile, people’s struggle for freedom; the
wasted dreams of a political project inherited by a generation of Cubans that has
not been part of the actual Revolution but is in any case the main protagonist of the
island today.
The house and the island (La Casa y la Isla) is an ambitious autofiction novel, an
absolute must to understand Cuba of the transition.
RELEASE DATE
NOVEMBER 2016
......
“Ronaldo is currently one of the most refine contemporary writers. He stands out
for his expertise in building up tension and his acuity in structure, as a result of a
demanding dedication to short novel investigation”.
Peio Hernández, Público
“Ronaldo Menéndez’s efficient prose reminds us of the greatest American masters
of black novels”.
Juan Bonilla, El Mundo
“His stories, far from being submitted to the dictates of mere nostalgia and political vindication (or political correctness), resort to odd daily life and cinematographic staging”.
Revista Quimera
6
WE SHALL NOT SING ON FOREIGNER’S LAND
(No cantaremos en tierra de extraños) (Galaxia Gutenberg)
Ernesto Pérez Zúñiga
©Daniel Mordzinski
In Autumn 1944, two survivors without any sense of
homeland meet each other at the Toulouse Varsovia
Hospital in France. Both have lost it all thus have nothing
left to lose. Obsessed with Western characters, Manuel
Juanmaría dreams about a woman who remained in
Spain. Ramón Montenegro, head-sergeant of the “Nueve”, which liberated Paris, makes him an odd proposition: “Now that we’ve lost a country, why don’t we save
a person.”
Ernesto Pérez Zúñiga
(Madrid, 1971) consolidates his narrative work with the presentation of No
cantaremos en tierra de extraños (We
shall not sing on foreigners’ land)
(Galaxia Gutenberg, 2016), a stunning adventure with totalitarianism
as a backdrop. He had previously
published La fuga del maestro Tartini
(2013), awarded with prestigious Spanish literary Torrente Ballester Prize;
El juego del mono (Monkey’s game)
(2011), El segundo círculo (Second
circle) (2007, Luis Berenguer Award)
and Santo diablo (Holy devil) (2004);
all of them with outstanding critiques. In Automn 2016, French edition
of Escritos en el Espejo will also get
published. Apart from his collection
of stories Las botas de siete leguas
y otras maneras de morir (The seven
mile boots and other ways to die)
(2002), Ernesto Pérez Zúñiga is the
author of peculiar poetry works: Siete
caminos para Beatriz (2014), Cuadernos del hábito oscuro (2007), Calles
para un pez luna (2002), Ella cena de
día (2000), Los cuartos menguantes
(1997), El vigilante (1991).
Author of essays and chronicles in
different reviews, his work is being
translated into various languages
and is becoming one of the strongest references in recent Spanish literature.
CONTEMPORARY
WESTERN
ADVENTURE NOVEL
IN POST-WAR EUROPE
This is how the impressive adventure of two unforgettable characters in search of a woman in enemy territory
starts off. Everything that was familiar has turned foreign.
Both travellers will have to violently face up to multiple
situations and to other memorable characters that will
also remain in the reader’s mind.
We shall not sing on foreigner’s land (No cantaremos en tierra de extraños),
is the sound of exile, a disturbing story of love and loyalty where fighting against
totalitarianism is set in a tearing plot full of surprising and mysterious encounters at
unusual levels that will transform the protagonists’ search just as much as themselves.
With contradictory heroism, Montenegro y Juanmaría embody the passions, madness and anxiety of a period in time that has direct consequences on ours.
RELEASE DATE
SEPTEMBER 14th. 2016
......
“One of Pérez Zúñiga’s main writing characteristics is his capacity to turn into life the
ghosts of imagination”.
Juan Ángel Juristo, Cuadernos hispanoamericanos
“An aesthetic territory genuinely personal”.
Luis Alberto de Cuenca, Ínsula
“An unforgettable piece of work”.
Javier Goñi, Babelia
7
DOS PASSOS AWARD 2015
FIRST NOVEL
AUTOFICTION
COCAiNE (Cocaína) (Galaxia Gutenberg)
Daniel Jiménez
©Alicia Blanco
Daniel Jiménez
Nace en Madrid, en 1981.
Born in Madrid in 1981. At the age
of twenty-three he gets his degree in
History, starts to study journalism and
to write literature. He was awarded
one scholarship after the other while
working as a deliveryman, a waiter, a
shop assistant and a bookseller. He
collaborates with various communication medias publishing articles, interviews and literary reports. He has
written a hundred short stories and a
few incomplete novels. He has never
ceased to write. He has never had
a Facebook account. Cocaine is his
first novel.
Madrid, the year is 2013. While the whole country is
celebrating New Year’s Eve, Daniel has locked himself up
in a cold gloomy house with two cats and three grams
of cocaine. Unable to finish his novel, he starts a diary in
which he portrays his disturbing conception of the world,
his conflict-ridden relationships with his friends and the
tragic situation of his family.
Weariness and despair plunge him into hopeless indifference. Writing is the only thing that keeps him alive.
Nothing seems to be able to save him. Or yes – maybe
something. Cocaine (Cocaína) is a story of redemption
written in second-person narrative. The protagonist’s vision of reality reflects an exalted image of job insecurity,
personal success and the failure of a society just as comfortable as it is hostile. It is a wrathful novel about life and
death, disenchantment and survival, in which addiction
becomes the reflection of a whole generation. Free from taboos or concessions to
political correctness, Cocaine (Cocaína) is a kick at the from a writer who stands at
the fringe of good manners. An irreverent work that provides food for thought and
questions the status quo. A truly devastating book, absolutely inescapable.
In the authors words
......
“Writing is never easy. Just in case someone doesn’t know it, it is the most
difficult craft there is. This is what Truman Capote wrote. As for Bolaño, he wrote: nobody should write if not driven by an inner uncontrollable demon. And
someone else, I can’t remember who it was but maybe it doesn’t really matter,
declared something like: writing is just like leaning out over the abyss knowing
that you are not the one who is looking but the one who is looked at.
Writing for me is a mean to understand the other through the deep knowledge of oneself. Writing as the expression of the self, a seeking and a getting
lost. Writing as a challenge, a fight, an aim. Writing for the sake of it. Writing
as a way of life.
Nevertheless, writing is not enough. Reading is a writer’s true commitment,
as it places us face to face with the other writers, their achievements and their
ambitions. It enriches us, helps us to get better or at least inspires us to try it
over and over again. Borges considers that reading is more noble than writing.
If this isn’t what literature is about, to practice, improve and understand oneself
through reading and writing, then we’d better forget about it.”
RELEASE DATE
JANUARY 2016
“The author – says the jury – writes in second person from the perspective of a writer driven and consumed by his two obsessions: drugs and literature. He manages to lead the reader through a frenetic roaming in which the addictions mentioned above are not only his escape route but also the main narrative theme of the book.”
“Cocaine is a furiously contemporary novel about the pursuit of outer horizons.
Sharpness. Complaint. Criticism. Humour. Madrid.”
Emma Rodríguez, journalist
8
CABARET BIARRITZ (Destino-Grupo Planeta)
José C. Vales
©Rai Robledo
In the summer of 1925, the residents of Biarritz were
shocked by a tragic event. The body of a young girl
appeared dangling with a foot caught in one of the iron
rings used for securing boats in the port.
In 1938, the young, passionate writer Georges Miet
receives what would turn out to be the most important
assignment of his career. His editor asks him to write a
‘serious’ novel about what had taken place in Biarritz almost fifteen years earlier.
Miet does not hesitate to travel to the vibrant, coastal
city to speak to everyone who could have been linked to
the event and comes upon people from all rungs of the
social ladder; ranging from domestic employees to distinguished, high-society ladies, as well as reporters, two
gendarmes, a photographer, artists, performers, a judge
and even a nun.
Jose C. Vales
(Zamora, 1965) (Zamora, 1965) Studied a degree in Spanish Language
and Literature at the University of Salamanca and went on to specialize in
the philosophy and aesthetics of romantic literature in Madrid. His work
has always been linked to the publishing world, as a writer, editor and
translator for various publishers. He
created the updated edition of Charles Dicken’s Cuentos de Navidad (A
Christmas carol and other christmas
stories) (Espasa, 2011) and Anthony
Trollope’s classic: Las torres de Barchester (Barchester towers) (Espasa,
2008).
Some of his most notable translations and pieces of editing include
the ninth publication of Frankenstein
by Mary Wollstonecraft and Percy
B. Shelley (Espasa, 2009) based on
the new manuscripts found in the
Bodleian Library in Oxford, and the
Wilkie Collins classics, La piedra lunar) (The moonstone) and Armadale, published in 2007 and 2008 by
Verticales de Bolsillo-Belacqva. His
latest translations for the publishing
house Impedimenta have merited
considerable recognition: La hija del
optimista, (The optimist’s daughter)
by Eudora Welty, La hija de Robert
Poste, (Cold comfort farm) by Stella
Gibbons, Reina Lucía (Queen Lucia)
and Mapp y Lucía, (Mapp and Lucia)
by E. F. Benson, as well as La juguetería errante, (The moving toyshop) by
Edmund Crispin.
His first novel is called El Pensionado
de Neuwelke, (The Neuwelke boarding School) and was published by
Planeta in 2013.
NADAL AWARD 2015
LITERATURE COMEDY
BIARRITZ CITY (FRANCE) IN THE 20’S
Miet interviews each person he believes to be involved, as if preparing a press
feature, in order to meticulously transcribe their statements. He sketches an accurate
and detailed portrait of sophisticated, outrageous Biarritz, which turns into the model
setting for those golden years of the 1920s during which society sought to break with
the most long-established and outdated conventions.
RIGHTS SOLD
OVER 20.000 COPIES
SOLD IN SPAIN
Italy (Neri Pozza)
Romania (Editura Trei)
France (Denöel - Gallimard)
......
“Cabaret Biarritz is an extraordinary, comic symphony, at times redolent of other
works such as La verdad sobre el caso Savolta (The Truth About the Savolta Case)
by Eduardo Mendoza”.
Lorenzo Silva, writer and President of the Nadal literary award panel 2015
“Cabaret Biarritz masterfully mixes criminal investigation and social parody. Vales
builds a magnificent literary artifact that is a striking display of discernment.”
Francisco Solano. Babelia. El País
“It is an astonishing Nadal award winner”
EITB
“José C. Vales’ narrative style is somewhat reminiscent of the most renowned and
highly-regarded storytellers in English literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries,
such as Lewis or Dickens. The reader is presented with prose in which the elegant
narration shines through, the simplicity of the most traditional elements of Dickensian literature in contrast with lyricism.” Revista Krítica
9
ALONE (Solos) (Alfabia)
Paloma Bravo
CONTEMPORARY NOVEL
©Miguel Pereira
Javi and Elena are walking towards the tougher side
of their forties, dragging themselves in their second marriage and both frequently tempted by separation. Nevertheless, today they have just come back from a trip,
the kids are being looked after and they are having a
party but only Ana and Tomas show up. Both are single,
both are free. That night the four of them start discussing
certain issues that worry us all: fear, relationships, friendship, sex, work, kids, rejection, illness, intimacy, death…
Paloma Bravo
Her first novel La novia de papá (Daddy’s girlfriend) was published in
2010. Since then, Paloma Bravo has
kept writing about daily life, about
that which affects us all: love, relationships, work, kids… And she has
done it in many different formats:
blog, tales, novels, theatre… Her
second novel La piel de Mica (Mica’s
skin) was premiered on Off-Broadway
in New-York City while her first novel
keeps touring on Spanish stages and
will soon be turned into a movie. Solos is her latest release.
All these issues about life, which can definitely be
found in our very own, are tackled with humour, tenderness and empathy. Constantly torn between pain and
laughter, the four main characters of Alone (Solos) try to
face up to their fears and disappointments with hope but
also with the intention to laugh a little bit about themselves.
Yasmina Reza’s cruel irreverence meets Woody Allen’s witty humour. Alone (Solos) rises up against fate and the etiquette: undisciplined in its form, crystal clear in its
content, it is a shameless unisex piece of fiction, utterly necessary to understand life.
At the end of the day we are all alone each in our own way.
Paloma Bravo’s very personal style is a genuine delight for the reader: ironic, brief,
almost blunt as well as utterly contemporary. We inevitably identify ourselves with the
characters’ ambiguous reality: although as we are each time more and more connected, we remain inevitably alone.
......
“We are terrified about being on our own whether or not we are in a relationship we are still all alone, each in our own way. With witty irony, laughter
and a few tears, this brilliant portrait of four friends gets rid of fear and brings
back hope.”
RELEASE DATE
FEBRUARY 26th. 2016
2nd. EDITION
10
WHAT WAS WRITEN IN THE STARS
(El destino era esto) (Ediciones B)
ROMANTIC THRILLER
David Cantero
©David Vegal
Patricia has always felt sure of herself. Attractive,
well-off and successful in business, she knows her way
around the most esteemed circles. Until the day they attempt to kidnap her and suddenly everything changes.
Patricia starts feeling scared for the very first time. So scared that she accepts the protection of a bodyguard.
Damián is a tough guy. Not the type to fall in love
easily. Sometimes he feels a bit lonely, even sad, but he
deals with it by solving complicated cases and drinking
whisky on the rock in some shady blues club. Until he
eventually meets the unattainable Patricia.
David Cantero
Was born in Madrid in March 1961.
As a journalist, photographer, writer,
painter and illustrator, David Cantero’s professional life has always taken
place in a television environment,
where for over three decades he has
worked on diverse professional projects. He has worked for RTVE for
more than twenty-eight years, first
behind the cameras as a camera operator, press photographer, film editor,
film director and photo director. As a
reporter he has covered all kinds of
news, as well as national and international events around the globe.
He also worked as a correspondent
in Italy and in the Vatican for three
years. Later on he began to work
in front of the camera and started
working as a presenter. First he presented the local news in Andalusia,
later he worked for Canal 24 Hours,
eventually becoming the director of
all editions of the TVE (Spanish national television) News Programme,
where he also presented the news
as well as various special programmes, among which the memorable
“Weekly News”. Since 2010, he has
been at the head of the Telecinco
3pm news bulletin, part of Mediaset
Spain. As a writer he has published
the book of poems Caudal de ausencias (Flow of absence) (1997) and
the novels Amantea (2005), El Hombre del Baobab (The Baobab tree
man) (2009) and El Viaje de Tanaka
(Tanaka’s journey) (2014). He has also
collaborated in publishing many articles in a great number of newspapers
and magazines.
He is in charge of looking after her during a trip to
Marrakech. In the exotic city, under the starry sky of the
desert, attraction between the protagonists flares at times. But fate always has its own
plans in store…
......
“The jewels of love are absolutely exceptional: the rare jewels with genuine
value, the ones with many carats that are hard to get hold of.
We have to suffer and fight for them.
If we are so lucky as to come across one, a rather unusual occurrence, there
will be few moments that can compare to that feeling throughout our
whole life. Possibly never”
RELEASE DATE
OCTOBER 19th. 2016
11
BEFORE I MET YOU (Antes de conocerte) (Planeta)
Pablo del Palacio
© Ánder Zufiaur
When Lucas meets Tadea a friend of his girlfriend
Patricia, love at first sight strikes. This is a turning-point
in both their lives and for everyone else that they are
surrounded by. Not only will they discover love and hatred but also a mysterious book which tells the story of a
passionate relationship only too similar to theirs. It could
have been a funny coincidence if only its plot would have
had a happy ending and if they could be sure it is all pure
fiction, which does not seem to be the case. The young
couple will get involved in an inevitable and dangerous
search towards a past that could possibly explain the present but also disrupt their own future.
Pablo del Palacio
Pablo del Palacio (Madrid, 1981) has
a BA in Law and a Masters degree in
Cultural Management. Throughout
his career he has worked in various
types of roles such as working for a
law-firm specialized in intellectual
property, representing actors in an
agency as well as working as a corporate entrepreneur and many other
that he does not wish to remember.
Both his intimate relationship with
literature and his passion for poker
have lead him to publish, together
with champion Leo Margets, La reina
del poker (The queen of poker) (Planeta, 2010) and soon after, a satirical
novel about the financial crisis with
María Antonia Velasco, ¡Pobres pobres! (Poor them! poor them!) (Carena, 2012). Que Sea Verano (Wish it
were summer) (Click Ediciones, 2014)
was his first novel written on his own,
a biased and fairly frivolous portrait
of his generation. Antes de Conocerte (Before I met you) (Planeta, 2016)
shows a surprisingly more mature
voice within an original and intense
combination between thriller and romanticism.
ROMANTIC THRILLER
A frenetic journey paved with obstacles where love
chases tragedy. And tragedy is eventually found in love.
......
A young narrative voice which breaks into contemporary literary scene with
a romantic thriller that keeps the reader engaged from the very first page.
A thriller that combines characteristic elements of the best mystery black
novel and a passionate, forbidden and risky love story.
A vertiginous story full of passion, madness and dramatic twists that keeps
surprising the reader holding the suspense until the dénouement of the plot.
The author has quickly become a surprisingly outstanding young literary
voice thanks to his nimble fresh style as well as the originality of his characters.
A very commercial novel with a plot that is built around a reality with a twist
taking the reader by surprise.
RELEASE DATE
OCTOBER 11th. 2016
12
MY NAME IS SENA (Mi nombre es Sena) (Harper Collins)
Marta del Riego Anta
LOVE STORY / SUSPENSE
©Ángel del Riego Anta
Berlin is getting ready to bring in the year 2000. Sena
and her group of eccentric friends ride their bikes tirelessly through the bustling city in search of something
intangible. As for Sena, nothing in her is what it seems to
be. Neither her idyllic rural childhood in Northwest Spain
nor her comfortable life as the wife of an upper class German man.
Sena is overcome with a sense of unrest and an urgent need for change until she meets Yuri, a mysterious
and fascinating Russian Jew who will gradually erase any
reminiscence of her life. Nevertheless, what seems to be
a crazy love story turns out to be a true nightmare, as it is
not so easy for Sena nor for Yuri to undo their past.
Marta del Riego Anta
Journalist, writer and poet, Marta del
Riego Anta was born in La Bañeza
(León) and studied journalism at the
Complutense University of Madrid.
She completed her Master’s Degree
at El Pais and spent a few years in
London and Berlin where she worked as a correspondent and freelance journalist for various Spanish
and foreign media outlets such as
the prestigious Spanish newspaper
El Mundo, radio station SFB4 Multikulti and the TV channel Deutsche
Welle. Throughout her career, she
has collaborated with and worked for
Canal Plus, El País, Viajes National
Geographic, Marie Claire... She is currently the chief-editor of the magazine Vanity Fair. She is also a regular
collaborator of the Hay Festival held
in Segovia and teaches workshops in
the Literary Journalism Master’s programme at the CEU. In 2010 she published her first novel Solo los tontos
creen en el amor (Only fools believe
In love) and her second novel in 2013,
Sendero de frío y amor (Path of indifference and love).
......
“It had happened again. Once again she had to put on an act. Her smile
from ear to ear, sweet, peaceful, as if someone had taken a smooth piece of
suede and swept it along all the dust, the dirt and the sullenness. Specially the
sullenness.
She had people call her Sena, though her real name was Eugenia. But that
bloody name was totally unpronounceable for anyone who did not speak Spanish. That’s why she was known as Sena to everyone in Berlin. She didn’t care
whether Sena was pronounced with a liquid or whistling “s”. She had heard the
name in a movie and decided it was for her. She liked it and that was reason
enough. If you over-explain something it kills the mystery and one needs a bit
of mystery to get by in this world. And that was precisely what was missing in
her life: mystery.
-
My name is Sena.
-
Can you repeat your name to us please? Loud and clear this time…”
RELEASE DATE
SEPTEMBER 2016
......
“My Name is Sena may appear to be a love triangle, or perhaps a book about one’s
travels through Israel, Spain, Germany and Russia. In actuality/reality, however, it
is the story of three characters who struggle to find their place in the world. And,
above all, about a woman who is driven to understand who it is that stares back at
her in the mirror”.
Santiago Roncagliolo
13
GHOSTS SNEAK IN WITHOUT A KEY
CONTEMPORARY NOVEL
(Los fantasmas se cuelan sin forzar las cerraduras) (La Pereza) A 50 YEAR-OLD WOMAN
IN THE XXIst. CENTURY
Carmen Gallardo
©Miguel Gómez
Ironic, cynical, caring, utopian, tender, cruel, contradictory, Ángela Barrios, the protagonist, is a domestic revolutionary who gazes at everything that surrounds her,
including her own life, with an acid and dreamy look. Advertising designer, a job she got to by chance, two nieces, a boyfriend and a dog, Ángela is well into her fifties
but still feels like an eighteen-year-old, although she has
begun to shuffle forward in a world that keeps reminding
her she is past her best. They want her to retire but Ángela is one of those women who fought to change their
role in the world. Sincere, committed, critical, fetishist,
she writes, almost daily, about those things that embitter
her life. Nevertheless, ghosts from the past sneak through the cracks of her blog from which she shouts at the
world against the invisibility of being.
Carmen Gallardo
(Madrid) is a journalist. She has worked for television, radio, various
agencies and women’s magazines,
including Dunia, Joyce, Yo Dona.
She has travelled to dreadful refugee
camps and walked royal parlours. Society and Cultural have always been
her field of expertise. Nowadays, she
writes about royal houses in the Vanity Fair digital edition, collaborates
with the magazine and works as a
screenwriter of the Canal Sur TV-series Hijos de Andalucía (Sons of Andalucía). Co-author and organiser
of the exhibition Mujeres españolas
(Spanish Women) (2011), a body of
articles by distinguished female writers and photographers published by
the Instituto de la Mujer (Women’s
Institute). She is the author of the historical novel La reina de las lavanderas (Queen of the laundresses) (2012)
now in its fifth edition.
With a clear straightforward language and a sarcastic and sometimes nostalgic
style, the author has created a character who, with sharpness and gentle caresses,
bombards social networks and the world around her with the tools at hand: humour,
sarcasm and a good dose of realism, dramatic at times. “Without hardly noticing, one
day you realize that life has gone by.” And so the verse of a popular Sevillian song
torments her with anecdotes, songs, looks, whining, wailing, engagement, pain and
death, passion and desire, candlelit toasts or raising a glass to the sun.
RELEASE DATE
MAY 26th. 2016
14
LONELINESS (La soledad) (Planeta)
Natalio Grueso
©Daniel Mordzinski
Natalio Grueso
has been director of the Teatro Español (Spanish Theatre) and Artes Escénicas (Performing Arts) in Madrid,
and has produced dozens of plays
and festivals. He was also managing
director of the Fundación Centro
Niemeyer (Niemeyer Cultural Centre).
He has a degree in Law and International Relations, speaks five languages and has been invited to speak at
conferences and seminars in over 50
countries around the world.
La soledad is his first novel. In 2015
he published Woody Allen. The last
genius.
ON ITS 3rd EDITION
OVER 8.000 COPIES
SOLD IN SPAIN
RIGHTS SOLD
Germany (Hoffmann und
Campe Verlag GmbH)
Italy (Salani)
Turkey (Pegasus Yaymcihk
Tic.San.Ltd.Sti)
Czech Republic (Host Vydavatelstvi, S.R.O)
France (Presses de la cité)
Greece (Klidarithmos Publications EPE)
NOVEL MADE OUT OF TALES
UP-MARKET LITERATURE
Grueso’s book is like a winding river that on some occasions flows calmly but on others turns suddenly into a
roiling torrent. And that river holds many stories, which
like a meticulously crafted puzzle, end up fitting together
to form a complete landscape.
They are stories about unforgettable characters, such
as Bruno Labastide, a lonely Frenchman, who is also a
globetrotter, somewhat cowardly but very charming, who
has lived off trickery, duping women, traveling all over the
world searching for goodness knows what: a white-collar,
or even silk-cravat thief, as someone described him. Bruno has never really loved anyone. he is a man who turned
away from the life he was destined for, the dull existence
of a hotel employee, and set out on a life adventure that
led him to journey across the globe, living off his resourcefulness and charm. As we now find him, in his later years, filled with loneliness,
appearing aged rather than actually old, he lets life tick by in the most beautiful and
sad place in the world: Venice. That is where Bruno’s spirit changes forever, because in
that city, he meets Keiko, the exquisite Japanese woman who each night, sleeps with
the man who manages to move her with a poem or story. However, Bruno Labastide,
the great fable-spinner, the trickster with an irresistible smile who disarms women,
cannot gain entry to that paradise, because, to his surprise, he runs out of stories in
the presence of the Japanese beauty. Then there is the story of Horacio Ricott, “the
prescriber”, an Argentine who prescribes books the way others prescribe drugs, but
earns a living as a concierge in an office building and whose quiet existence is thrown
into utter disarray upon finding a mysterious package in the street. And the tale of
Ricardo Kublait, his best friend, formerly a renowned sports commentator who completely destroyed his career for love. There is not a single day when Ricardo does not
think about the wife he had loved and the fame he had enjoyed. And on one of his
most gloomy days, his friend Horacio prescribes him a book, the story of Lucas, who
confronted and defeated, also for love, the all-powerful multinational Pinkerton, the
corporation that had purchased the rights of use of all the languages in the world,
all spoken and written languages and all the words ever invented. There is also the
story of Jonás, the teenager from Central America who is filled with innocence and
the wisdom of ages, and the legend of the “dreamcatcher” and the old man who
dreamed of having a silver cigarette case; the hopes of Khaled, the Iraqi boy with an
invaluable left foot who dreams of being a soccer star and ends up becoming a victim
of a senseless war. Stories that traverse the world, stories of pain and love, of peace
and war, of unknown people living in poverty and the decadent rich, of the powerful
who play with the lives of the humble.
“This is a novel made up of tales. We find a book prescriber, a sports commentator
who broadcasts soccer games not as they really are but how they ought to be, and
many other characters who are equally extraordinary, and who experience both
unexpected and highly-enjoyable adventures around all corners of the world. A
book to be savored, in which each new page offers the reader an even more amazing eye-opener than the previous one”.
Mario Vargas Llosa
“A sensitive, beautiful and poignant novel, which touched my heart when I read it”.
Paulo Coelho
“A welcome and elegant surprise”.
Arturo Pérez Reverte
15
WOODY ALLEN. THE LAST GENIUS
(Woody Allen. El último genio) (Plaza & Janés - Grupo Penguin Random House)
Natalio Grueso
PERSONAL AND INTIMATE VISION/BIOGRAPHY
©Daniel Mordzinski
Natalio Grueso
Has devoted his career to international relations and culture management, having held senior positions in
several internationally-renowned institutions. He has been director of the
Teatro Español (Spanish Theatre) and
of Artes Escénicas (Performing Arts)
in Madrid. He met Woody Allen in
the 90s, when living in New York, and
they have been great friends ever
since. In Asturias, he was production manager of Allen’s movie: Vicky,
Cristina, Barcelona. His first novel, La
Soledad (Loneliness), has become an
international success and has been
translated into several languages.
Woody Allen is one of the most important figures
in the culture of our time. Moviemaker, playwright and
author, after Chaplin and Groucho Marx, he is the last
of the great masters of comedy and of an ingenious
approach to the ‘seventh art’.
This book reveals a side of the New York genius that
departs from his well-known public image, and invites
us to get to know Woody in a closer, more personal way
through exclusive accounts from those who have had
the privilege of meeting him in person and working with
him over the course of his career. It spans his passion
for magic and humor in his early years, through to his
likes and dislikes about cinema, music and literature,
including previously unpublished anecdotes about the
shooting of his movies and his stays in Spain.
......
To mark Woody Allen’s 80th birthday, Natalio Grueso, a close friend of the
moviemaker, has written a sympathetic and personal book about the New
York genius, a must for his legions of fans across the globe.
RIGHTS SOLD
Germany (Hoffmann und Campe Verlag GmbH)
Portugal (Penguin Random House Group)
Italy (Salani)
16
AZORÍN AWARD 2014
TWILIT NOVEL
FULL OF POETRY AND PAIN
HOTEL PARADISE (Hotel Paradiso) (Planeta)
Ramón Pernas
©Asís Ayerbe
An aged circus elephant and Javier, a distinguished
old man, die on the same day at the same time in a small
city in the north of Spain. These events, which appear
unrelated, are nonetheless the inevitable culmination
of a love story that began many years before, when the
old man had been barely fifteen years old. Now he has
left a written account of his story, a living will that blends
confession, justification and valediction. Living in the residential home that he himself had ordered to be built
in his home town, he is surrounded by memories that he
feels driven to share before dying. Because Javier knows
perfectly well when and how he is going to die.
Ramón Pernas
is Galician, from Viveiro. A journalist
by trade and vocation, winner of the
Premio Puro de Cora y Julio Camba,
a journalism award, he has run magazines, written poetry and songs, and
was a television scriptwriter. He has
been a critical opinion and literary
column writer as well as director of
publishing at Espasa (Grupo Planeta).
He now has a dozen or so books in
print, including the novels Si tú me
dices ven (If you tell me to come),
El pabellón azul (The blue pavilion),
Brumario (Brumaire), Libro de actas
(Record book) and Del viento y la
memoria (The wind and memory),
and is considered a well-established
novelist, who has received the Ateneo de Sevilla literary award, the
Letras de Bretaña literary award and
the Emilio Alarcos International novel
award among others. He was also a
National Literature Award finalist with
his book Paso a dos (Dance for two).
He runs El Corte Inglés’ (department
store group) Ámbito Cultural (cultural
center) and writes a weekly article for
the daily newspaper La Voz de Galicia.
In the meantime, in a place not far from him, the granddaughter he does not know is also writing about her
thoughts, desires and memories. She is the daughter of the owner of a small circus,
the Tívoli, which has returned to the town after twenty years. A circus that was the
setting in which Javier found his only true love, when as a teenager he fell for a young
trapeze artist, with whom he had a child, and continued to maintain a relationship in
secret for many years. Grandfather and granddaughter, so near one another without
either of them knowing, tell the story of those two worlds that are very different but
which on one occasion, met. Nonetheless, it is the three of them, grandfather, son
and granddaughter, who have the chance to heal old wounds in a compelling ending, in which a twist of fate brings them together for the first and last time.
RIGHTS SOLD
Italy (Le Lepre Edizioni)
......
“Hotel Paradiso is a shadowy novel, brimming with pain and poetry which mercilessly reflects on old age and fate: a capricious, relentless fate that plays with
mortals, robbing them of happiness”.
“Moving, compelling and vibrant, Hotel Paradiso, winner of the Azorín award
2014, is a well-rounded novel. With his extraordinary mastery of language,
Ramón Pernas is able to whisk readers away from their daily reality and transport
them to another parallel life”.
Azorín award panel 2014
17
WHEN WE WERE ANGELS
(Cuando éramos ángeles) (Seix Barral-Grupo Planeta)
Beatriz Rodríguez
©Alba Ramírez
Beatriz Rodríguez
(Sevilla, 1980) has a degree in Spanish Language and Literature. She has
worked as an editor for Trama publishing house, La Fábrica and Grupo
Anaya. She has contributed to magazines such as El rapto de Europa on
cultural topics and Trama y Texturas
that deals with the world of books,
and to documentary scripts such as
La memoria de los cuentos. Los últimos narradores orales, (The memory
of tales. The last storytellers) by moviemaker José Luis López Linares.
She has also contributed to literary
and opinion sections in publications
by Grupo Andalucía Información
and recently, to the anthology Watchwomen. Narradoras del siglo XXI.
(Watchwomen: 21st Century female
storytellers). She currently runs the
publishing house Musa a las 9 and
the Festival Internacional de Poesía
de Madrid, POEMAD (Madrid International Poetry Festival). La vida real
de Esperanza Silva (The real life of Esperanza Silva) (Casa de cartón, 2013)
was her first novel.
PUBLICATION DATE
JANUARY 2016
RIGHTS SOLD
France (Actes Sud)
RURAL THRILLER
Reporter Clara Ibáñez is a young woman who leads
a quiet life, cloistered away in Fuentegrande, a town
with fewer than a thousand people. She runs the local
newspaper, despite having aspired to greater things.
She hardly socializes with anyone, apart from Chabela,
the owner of Las Rosas guesthouse, where she eats and
sleeps, as well as drinks in order to try to forget the recent death of her husband.
When the body of Fran Borrego appears, one of the
owners of the land surrounding the town, a community
brimming with envy, intrigue and unaccomplished schemes that come from a past that Clara knows nothing
about is unveiled.
That past, which began during Fran Borrego’s teenage years, features as a flashback within the story itself.
As Clara Ibáñez starts an investigation into the influential landowner’s death, interviewing a variety of people who could be involved in his
murder, the flashback, set in the 90s, reveals the true story of each one of them to the
reader, along with how this group of teenagers discover sex, love, anger, friendship,
disappointment and revenge.
In this way the author shapes a novel that plays with different realities only witnessed by the reader, who will not only see how the other characters evolve, but also
Clara Ibáñez herself. The text is characterized by two themes: food, which takes on a
leading role through Chabela’s recipes, and sex, which bursts into Clara’s life thanks
to Fernando Alegría, one of the characters the reporter suspects, but is unavoidably
attracted to.
“Beatriz Rodríguez possesses the strength and versatility of storytellers who have
a voice of their own. Cuando éramos ángeles is an impeccably written novel about
character, loss of innocence, and the search for identity at a crucial moment in a woman’s life, that is to say, it is a literary novel of very high standing. But it also builds
up intrigue and suspense that keep the reader hooked, seeing how the investigation of a crime unfolds, the way we watch life go by. Because what is the real motive
for a crime? When is it first conceived? When the decision is made to commit it, or
many years earlier, when we were angels, forging our characters and the universe of
our relationships? A fantastic read that heralds the arrival of one of the most interesting voices on the Spanish literature scene, with a highly-promising future.”
Elena Ramírez. Director of Seix Barral publishing house
“A very well-constructed choral novel, particularly with regard to the rural setting
and the shaping of the characters. An enjoyable and easy read in which Beatriz
Rodríguez excellently reflects adolescence coming to an end and manages to focus
us on daily life and power relationships. A very good start for an author who is breaking into the challenging world of literary narration”.
Concha Quirós - Librería Cervantes (Cervantes Bookstore). Aula de las Metáforas (poetry library) award winner, 2015
“I found Cuando éramos ángeles, by Beatriz Rodríguez, as fascinating as it is disturbing. A drama with a great deal of flavor, and I’m not referring to the substantial
collection of recipes, as well as a very powerful soundtrack that takes your breath
away and is a perfect reflection of the years of liberalization that followed the Franco
regime.”
Rodrigo Rivero - Librería Lé (Lé Bookstore)
18
HOTEL TRANSITION
(Hotel transición) (Alianza Editorial)
Jesús Ruiz Mantilla
©Věra Zátopková
Jesús Ruiz Mantilla
(Santander, 1965)is a writer and journalist. He has been working at the
daily newspaper El País, since 1992,
where from the middle of the 90s he
has been a music columnist and has
worked on the Culture section, the
movie supplement El Espectador,
weekly magazine El País Semanal
and the cultural supplement Babelia,
publications for which he writes regularly. In 1997 his first novel was released: Los ojos no ven (Eyes don’t see)
a thriller set against the backdrop of
the world of Salvador Dalí, followed
by Preludio (Prelude), the story of the
pianist León de Vega, obsessed with
Chopin’s works.
With Gordo (Fat) he won the Sent
Sovi award for literature with a gastronomic theme, which was followed
by Yo, Farinelli, el capón, (I, Farinelli,
the eunuch), the essay Placer contra
placer (Pleasure versus pleasure) and
the novels Ahogada en llamas (Smothered by flames) and La cáscara
amarga (The bitter peel), which form
two parts of a trilogy set in 20th century Santander.
UNICAJA FERNANDO QUIÑONES AWARD 2016
AUTOBIOGRAFY
SPAIN OF THE TRANSITION
SOCIAL CRITICISM
Chucho, a talkative, restless and inquisitive kid, lives
in a hotel run by his mother Rocío. Eccentric, solitary and
mysterious characters reside there, that have stepped
out for a moment from the convulsions of a country that is
saying farewell to Franco’s dictatorship to waken democracy and liberty between a cloudy horizon and cautious
hope.
After the person he liked the most, his grandmother
Carmen, recently passed away, Chucho remains at the
expense of tensions and conflicts among his parents and
the rest of the family. In an environment of characters who
resist handing over as Franco’s top dogs, while others fight for reconciliation from the sadness of all-too-present
defeats.
In the time that Chicho abandons childhood for adolescence and adulthood, the
country matures around him through a fascinating individual and collective transition that would change the face of almost everything. His experiences and personal
memories, his hopes and disenchantments intertwine with events that marked those years and the present ones. From the attack on Carrero Blanco, Franco’s death, and the coup of February 23rd to the current catharsis implied by the change
of cycle, passing through the Watergate, the legalization of the Spanish communist
party, other deaths such as Mao’s, John Lennon’s or Adolfo Suárez’s, united with the
fascination that was triggered in him by TV series such as Bonanza or Hombre rico,
hombre pobre and most recently The Sopranos, True detective or Mad men… , all
overlapping in a mirror-like dialogue between those years and these that is at once
crude, satirical and hopeful.
.......
According to the jury of the Unicaja Fernando Quiñones Award, Hotel Transition is a portrayal of Spanish contemporary history in which the author’s ability
to “combine naivety and causticity, nostalgia and social criticism” in a novel
that works as a “crossroad between the present and the past, interwoven with
narrative lucidity and the perspective of a sharp pen.”
RELEASE DATE
MARCH 2016
“Hotel Transición is a novel with multiple interpretations. One of which is a foray into realism. Another one - overlapping
the previous one - a novel that confronts two different periods of history and creates a dialogue between them so they
end out making peace, maybe. Another interpretation could also be: a novel that questions itself; not novels in general,
otherwise we would enter the field of meta-fiction, but the one we are actually reading.”.
J. Ernesto Ayala-Dip. Babelia. El País
“A very pleasant read, accessible to all, which turns this novel into a cosy living room where we can easily make ourselves
comfortable”.
Pilar Castro. El Cultural. El Mundo
“A convincing novel of inner adventures and a fresco of today’s situation”.
Guillermo Roz, escritor
19
NON FICTION
A UNIQUE BOOK
DIRECT TESTIMONY
OF GREATEST MUSICIANS
OF THE XXth CENTURY
RECOUNTING MUSIC
(Contar la música) (Galaxia Gutenberg)
Jesús Ruiz Mantilla
© Věra Zátopková
Jesús Ruiz Mantilla
(Santander, 1965) is a writer and journalist. He has been working at the
daily newspaper El País, since 1992,
where from the middle of the 90s he
has been a music columnist and has
worked on the Culture section, the
movie supplement El Espectador,
weekly magazine El País Semanal
and the cultural supplement Babelia,
publications for which he writes regularly. In 1997 his first novel was released: Los ojos no ven (Eyes don’t see)
a thriller set against the backdrop of
the world of Salvador Dalí, followed
by Preludio (Prelude), the story of the
pianist León de Vega, obsessed with
Chopin’s works.
With Gordo (Fat) he won the Sent
Sovi award for literature with a gastronomic theme, which was followed
by Yo, Farinelli, el capón, (I, Farinelli,
the eunuch), the essay Placer contra
placer (Pleasure versus pleasure) and
the novels Ahogada en llamas (Smothered by flames) and La cáscara
amarga (The bitter peel), which form
two parts of a trilogy set in 20th century Santander.
Over two decades, Jesús Ruiz Mantilla has been a
music columnist for the daily newspaper El País. Recounting music (Contar la música) brings together a large
part of his experience in that field. A work that outlines
a profession that he has devoted himself to passionately,
through his contact with figures of the highest standing,
but which from the very title, has led him to the conclusion that it is an unattainable utopia.
Various well-known figures, creators and performers,
give us an insight into their experiences with music. Interviews with great conductors of our time, including
Daniel Baremboim, Claudio Abbado, Zubin Metha, Riccardo Muti and Gustavo Dudamel, pianists of the stature
of Brendel, Pollini, Zimerman, Sokolov and Maria Joao
Pires, along with his in-depth knowledge of phenomena
such as José Antonio Abreu’s Venezuelan youth orchestra
network, the West-Eastern Divan orchestra in which Palestinian and Israeli musicians
perform together, and the emergence of Chinese pianists, enable us to understand
the fascinating, creative, current classical music scene.
PUBLICATION DATE
NOVEMBER 2015
......
“A compelling, rigorous account of music today, essential for getting to know about
the Venezuelan orchestra network, in which I grew up”.
Gustavo Dudamel
20
THE AWAKENING OF MISS PRIM
(El despertar de la señorita Prim) (Planeta)
LONG SELLER
Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera
©Rai Robledo
Drawn by an attractive newspaper advert, Miss Prim,
a refined, independent and “extremely accomplished”
woman, arrives in San Ireneo de Arnois, a delightful little
village where nothing turns out to be what it seems.
Despite the fact that at first, the surprising lifestyle
of the townspeople awakens amazement, perplexity and
even disdain in her, their peculiar and unconventional
ways gradually put her view of the world to the test, challenging her innermost notions and fears as well as her
deepest convictions.
Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera
Is a journalist and has spent most of
her career in the economic reporting
field. She has a Law degree from the
ULC, masters in Journalism from El
País School of Journalism and the
UAM and a PIDD (Program for managerial development) from the ESIC
Business School. She has headed up
the sections Cinco Sentidos (offering the latest information on travel,
culture, personal finances etc.) and
Vida Profesional (news relating to
highly-qualified professionals) of the
business daily Cinco Días, where she
currently runs the Opinion section.
El despertar de la señorita Prim is her
first novel.
OVER 75.000 COPIES SOLD IN SPAIN
ON ITS NINTH EDITION
ON SALE IN OVER 70 COUNTRIES
......
MOVIE RIGHTS
Movie rights have been acquired by MOD PRODUCCIONES,
who will make an international production.
......
RIGHTS SOLD
USA and Canada
(Atria Books – Simon & Schuster Group)
UK and Commonwealth
(Abacus - Little Brown)
Italy (Mondadori)
Germany (Thiele Verlag)
France (Les Editions Grasset &
Fasquelle)
Poland (Amber)
Czech Republic
(Host Vydavatelstvi)
Brazil (Quadrante de Sociedade de Publicaçoes Culturais)
Lithuania (VšĮ, Tikroji moneta)
Slovenia (Druzina)
Croatia (Verbum)
“El despertar de la señorita Prim is an exquisite novel. The richness of its characters
will transport the reader to a world similar to that of Charles Dickens’ and Louisa May
Alcott’s classics. The literary value of this work will spark much comment throughout the
international publishing world”.
Johanna Castillo,Vice-president and editor at Atria Books – Simon & Schuster
(USA)
“This book is full of charm, an unusual tale with real heart. It’s about literature, philosophy, friendship and most importantly, love”.
Rowan Cope, editor at Abacus grupo Little Brown (United Kingdom)
“From start to finish, the atmosphere of this novel gives off an aroma of 19th century
English literature, which I personally find astonishing (Jane Austen and her characters
come to mind). The writing, which is in a truly classic style, is alive and the dialogues
are delectable. In short, it is a tremendously refreshing novel, much needed in these
gloomy times”.
Ariane Fasquelle, editor at Grasset (France)
“I fell in love with Miss Prim from the first line. This novel has awakened a longing in me
for beauty, truth and goodness. This book goes to the crux, or should I say, the heart of
everything.”
Daniela Thiele, editor at Thiele Verlag (Germany)
21
THE GARDEN OF MEMORY
(El jardín de la memoria) (Galaxia Gutenberg)
AUTOFICTION
Lea Vélez
©Asís Ayerbe
In first person, using a very direct style, Lea writes a
novel at the same time as caring for George, her husband, who is on the verge of dying of cancer. As she accompanies him, and helps him to come to terms with the
past by reliving memories of his childhood in England,
Lea immortalizes two stories that appear to be very different, but at their core are firmly bound together.
The first tells of the Collinsons’ past and their life in
Malmesbury, piecing back together the details of a family
tragedy that occurred in 1957. To find out about that past,
the author transcribes real letters that had been kept for
over fifty years in three old chocolate boxes. In turn, the
story of the Collinsons intertwines with memories of the
terrible experience of the photographer Francisco Boix,
a survivor of the Mauthausen concentration camp and
the only Spaniard to testify at the Nuremberg trials.
Lea Vélez
Was born in Madrid in 1970 and
obtained a degree in Journalism in
1994.
In 1996 she received the second Terra-Antena 3 award for the best feature film script for Como las olas (Like
the waves), her first movie script. She
began writing mainly for television.
Now, over six-hundred hours of TV
fiction have been pounded out on
her computer keyboard, above all
daily series, including: La verdad de
Laura (The truth about Laura) and
Luna negra (Black moon), which have
been hits with the viewers.
In 2004 her first novel, El desván
(The attic) (Ed. Plaza y Janés), was
released, written with her friend and
co-scriptwriter, Susana Prieto, and
six editions were published. In 2006
she co-wrote a second novel, La esfera de Ababol (Ababol’s sphere) (Ed.
Planeta). In 2008 she wrote, also with
Susana Prieto, the play Tiza (Chalk),
which was awarded the Teatro Agustín González prize in 2009. These two
published novels have been translated into Portuguese.
In 2014 La cirujana de Palma (The
lady surgeon of Palma) came out
(Ediciones B) and El jardín de la memoria (The garden of memory) (Galaxia Gutenberg).
The garden of memory (El jardín de la memoria) breaks with the taboo of dying
moments being something depressing. Lea (author and character) has created a novel out of love, in which she not only conveys the self-awareness that one acquires on
seeing death at close quarters, but also a wholehearted dedication to bringing out
the beauty that is often hidden within tragedy and patiently waits for years, biding
its time until the storyteller who is destined to unveil it is ready to stare it in the face.
“A shining memory. A loving remembrance, a family album, a kind of spell for bringing new life to loss. Lea Vélez brings her mettle to tragic circumstances”.
Francisco Solano. Babelia. El País
“A touching, true story. It relates in an amazing way, in first person, her experience
of being confronted with death, with no hint of drama and even a sense of humor,
which captivated me and which I devoured in no time at all. A real find”.
Maribel Verdú, actress
22
THIS COULD BE A QUEEN’S GAMBIT
(Esto podría ser un gambito de dama) (Almuzara)
David Vicente
THRILLER
© Juan Manuel Peña
David Vicente
(Madrid, 1974) has a degree in Political Science from the Complutense
University of Madrid and a Master’s
Degree specialized in E.U studies.
After exploring various jobs (storekeeper, operator in an industrial
bread making company, waiter and
administrative assistant, among
others) he developed his professional career in the publishing and communication industry. He has worked
as a corrector, professional reader
and editor for various publishing
houses as well as freelance editor
and contributor to different communication medias.
Over the last few years, he has been
the scriptwriter of many short films,
TV series and documentaries dealing with social issues, among which
Rompamos con el maltrato, (Let’s get
rid of mistreatment) based on the
novel El diario de Sara (Sara’s diary)
stands out. He has worked as editing
director of the Spanish literary channel Literalia Televisión and editor-inchief of the independent seal Ediciones Baladí. He has been columnist
for Diario de Alcalá newspaper and
worked as a literary critic for various
specialized blogs like La tormenta
en un vaso (The tempest in a glass).
In addition he has published short
stories and poems in various literary
magazines and anthologies (Salamandria, Barataria, Vinalia Trippers,
Los nóveles...). His first novel, Un pequeño paso para el hombre (Ediciones Tagus – Click Editores) achieved
wide critical acclaim leading it to be
selected as one of the five best literary debuts 2012 by El Cultural, the
cultural section of prestigious Spanish newspaper El Mundo. The book
was republished in March 2015 by
VdB Ediciones. In 2013, he published
El sonido de los sapos (Ediciones
Tagus), which was also critically acclaimed and got republished in March
2016 (Inventa Editores). Currently, he
is the director of the creative school
La Posada de Hojalata (www.laposadadehojalata.com) and teaches creative writing workshops.
In 1988, at the close of Cold War, the star of soviet chess, Elena Ajmilóvskaia, will
take advantage of the Olympic Games of Salónica to run away with John Donaldson,
captain of the US team. Meanwhile KGB agent Víktor Bakatin, head of surveillance of
the USSR selection, is getting drunk at the hotel bar oblivious to it all. Elena’s desertion, together with the Soviet team’s historic first defeat at the hands of some Hungarian girls, The Polgar sisters, will bring about some inconceivable consequences in
Víktor’s life, victim of a dismal period of our recent history.
David Vicente masterfully revives the figure of omniscient narrator into modern
literature to build, through lives interwoven by the threads of coincidence, an ambitious plot. Not only does he bring us closer to a crucial moment of our history
but he also puts in evidence how random our fate can be. The title This could be a
queen’s gambit (Esto podría ser un gambito de dama) highlights the key themes
of the book: a story about chess, politics, about how absurd and odd our existence
can sometimes be… But, above all, this is a story about unconditional love which
demonstrates that sometimes history is better explained through fiction rather than
school textbooks.
RELEASE DATE
OCTOBER 2016
23
Alexandra Templier
Foreign Rights Manager
alexandra@dospassos.es
Raquel Sánchez Gallardo
0034 91 521 58 12
raquel@dospassos.es
24