The power of

Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
Cabaret
Biarritz
José C. Vales
Nadal literary award 2015
Publisher: Destino -Grupo Planeta
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.
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society sought to break with the most long-established and outdated conventions.
© Rai Robledo
José C. Vales (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.
The reviews say:
"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
Sales
Over 20,000 copies sold in Spain
"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
International Rights
Italy (Neri Pozza)
Romania (Editura Trei)
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
2
Cuando
éramos ángeles (When We Were Angels)
Beatriz Rodríguez
Awaiting Publication
Publication Date: January 2016
Publisher: Seix Barral (Grupo Planeta)
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.
© Alba Rodríguez
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 (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.
Opinions on Cuando éramos ángeles
“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 highlypromising future.”
“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.”
“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.”
Concha Quirós- Librería Cervantes
(Cervantes Bookstore). Aula de las
Metáforas (poetry library) award winner,
2015
Rodrigo Rivero
Librería Lé (Lé Bookstore)
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
Elena Ramírez
Director of Seix Barral publishing house
3
La
Soledad (Loneliness)
Natalio Grueso
©Ricardo Martín
Publisher: Planeta
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 allpowerful 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.
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.
Sales
Three editions have been published
and over 8,000 copies sold in Spain.
International Rights
- Germany (Hoffmann und Campe Verlag
GmbH). Published in August 2015. Fifteen
days after coming out, the second edition was
launched and 15,000 copies have been
published, over 10,000 of which have been
sold.
- Italy (Salani)
- Turkey (Pegasus Yaymcihk Tic.San.Ltd.Sti)
- The Czech Republic (Host Vydavatelstvi,
S.R.O)
- France (Presses de la cité)
- Greece (Klidarithmos Publications EPE)
The reviews say:
“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 highlyenjoyable 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.”
“A sensitive, beautiful and poignant novel, which
touched my heart when I read it.”
Paulo Coelho
“A welcome and elegant surprise.”
Arturo Pérez Reverte
Mario Vargas Llosa
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
4
Woody
Allen El último genio (The last Genius)
Natalio Grueso
Publisher: Plaza & Janés - Grupo Penguin
Random House
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 wellknown 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.
©Ricardo Martín
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.
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.
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
5
El
despertar de la señorita Prim (The Awakening of Miss Prim)
Natalia Sanmartín Fenollera
© Rai Robledo
Publisher: Planeta
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.
Sales
Editor’s Opinions:
El despertar de la señorita Prim has
sold over 65,000 copies in Spain
and is on its ninth edition.
“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.”
International Rights
- United States and Canada
(Atria Books – Simon & Schuster Group)
- United Kingdom 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 (VsI, Tikroji moneta)
- Slovenia (Druzina)
Movie Rights
The movie rights have been acquired by MOD
PRODUCCIONES, who will make an
international production.
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)
“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)
6
“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)
“Miss Prim is an adorable character: a delicious
blend of a 19th century lady and thirtysomething culture of our day, that can be
enjoyed by readers of all ages. An entertaining
and ironic tale. An excellent novel that enables
us to reflect and ask ourselves important
questions about life, love and education, and
also about our own faults and limitations.”
Serena Bellinero, editor at Mondadori (Italy)
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
El
Jardín de la memoria (The Garden of Memory)
Lea Vélez
© Asís Ayerbe
Publisher: Galaxia Gutenberg
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.
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.
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 coscriptwriter, 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 reviews say:
“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
7
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
Hotel
Paradiso (Hotel Paradise)
Ramón Pernas
©Asís Ayerbe
Azorín award for best novel 2014
Publisher: Planeta
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.
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.
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.
Comments on Hotel Paradiso:
“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.”
International Rights
Italy (Le Lepre Edizioni)
“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
8
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
La
Sonata del silencio (Sonata of Silence)
Paloma Sánchez-Garnica
© Asís Ayerbe
Publisher: Planeta
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.
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.
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.
Sales
On its fifth edition, over 25,000 copies
have been sold in Spain.
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.
Readers comments on La Sonata Del Silencio:
"A heart-rending novel that I lapped up in
two days. The story is beautifully put
together, you can't put it down. A mustread."
"I loved it and it has left me with a desire
to read more novels by this author."
"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."
"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."
9
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
La
vida equivocada (The Wrong Life)
Luisgé Martín
Publisher: Anagrama
© Rai Robledo
La vida equivocada is a surprising story about two men, father and son, who dream of glory and accomplish
nothing but disaster. Max, a mediocre writer whom Luisgé Martín met in his younger days, recalls the
mysterious ambitions of Elías, his father, who died in a plane crash when he was still a boy, and left behind
hundreds of notebooks and photo albums that held within them the keys to his secrets, which are the core
theme of La vida equivocada. As in Luisgé Martín’s previous books, this latest novel zooms in on dark,
thought-provoking themes that end up gripping the reader: socially deviant sexuality, ambiguous identity,
death and murky politics. A novel that explores excesses and failure with unrelenting clarity, which delves
into lives lived on the brink of the abyss, never getting to find out whether that was a mistake. After La
mujer de sombra (Woman in Darkness) and La misma ciudad (The Same City), Luisgé Martín firmly
established himself as a storyteller with a guiding instinct that is as unique as it is indispensable.
Luisgé Martín has a degree in Spanish Language and Literature from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid and
a masters in Business Management. He has published short story collections: Los oscuros (The Dark Ones) (Alfaguara,
1990), El alma del erizo (The Hedgehog’s Soul) (Alfaguara, 2002) and Todos los crímenes se cometen por amor
(All Crimes are Committed For Love) (Salto de Página, 2013); a collection of letters: Amante del sexo busca pareja
morbosa (Sex Lover Seeks Playmate) (2002), and the novels: La dulce ira (Sweet Rage) (Alfaguara, 1995), La muerte
de Tadzio (Tadzio’s Death) (Alfaguara, 2000), winner of the Ramón Gómez de la Serna literary award, Los amores
confiados (Trusting Loves) (Alfaguara, 2005) Las manos cortadas (Cutting Off Hands) (Alfaguara, 2009), La mujer
de sombra (Woman in Darkness) (Anagrama, 2012), published the same year in Italy by Guanda; La misma ciudad
(The Same City) (Anagrama, 2013), and Toda una vida (A Whole Life) (La Perez ediciones, 2014).
Luisgé Martín received the Antonio Machado Premio del Tren in 2009, an award for short stories, organized by the
Fundación de los Ferrocarriles Españoles (Spanish Railways Foundation), with the tale: Los años más felices (The
Happiest Years). He also won the sixteenth Premio Vargas Llosa NH de Relatos, also a short story award, with Los
dientes del azar (The Teeth of Fate), and the Llanes de Viajes 2013 award for literature with a travel theme, for his
work: Donde el silencio (Where There is Silence).
The movie rights for his novel La misma ciudad, published by Anagrama, have been optioned by movie director
Salvador Calvo. This novel has attracted praise from The Times Literary Supplement, placing Martín alongside iconic
authors like Paul Auster and Philip Roth.
The reviews say:
“It’s not true that we envy winners. We
envy people who are happy.” This is what
essentially drives certain tormented
characters who slide their way through
concealment and pretense toward painful,
lucid self-discovery, the essence of this
outstanding novel.”
Jesús Ferrer
La Razón
“The extensive ‘Beginning' in which Martín
sets out the plan of his story has a hypnotic
quality, and the ‘Ending’ that brings the
book to a close is an exposition of elegant,
compelling anguish.”
“A story about identity, desire, searching,
failure, sexuality, love and friendship. A
deep, mature novel. A must-read.”
Antonio Martínez Asensio
Antena 3
Nadal Suau
El Cultural. El Mundo
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
10
Los
ciervos llegan sin avisar (The Deer Arrive Without Warning)
Berna González-Harbour
© Rai Robledo
Publisher: RBA
22 years ago, a strange accident took place on a road in the north of Spain. Carmen, an expert financial
analyst, saw the whole thing and hung on to several of the victim’s personal effects. Now that everything
has crumbled around her, she decides to go back to the scene of the accident to get to the bottom of what
happened.
She makes her way to that place, which is very close to the house where she grew up, and gets a room
in a guesthouse, where the owners immediately begin to suspect the reasons that brought her there. She
starts to investigate through various routes, such as the local newspaper’s archives, and little by little
begins to share her discoveries with Daniel, the owner of the town’s gas station, who encourages Carmen
to continue with the investigation, and they strike up a firm friendship right away.
She soon discovers that prior to that accident, there had been another in the same place, in which a young
man died. Carmen has to confront the rumors and whispers of townspeople who would rather sweep their
ghosts under the carpet and are not willing to allow anyone to kick up the dust.
As she carries out her investigation, Miguel, her former boss and lover, comes back into her life, tries to
resume the relationship and persuade her to accept a job in a bank with junk asset holdings.
Her ex-husband does not altogether disappear either, since he blackmails her with the love of her child.
A story based on true facts, as the author went through a similar experience in real life, which is exceptionally
well put together, the darkness of the intrigue keeping the reader on edge, and it offers a masterful
introduction to the psychology of anxiety and the efforts of those who struggle to make a fresh start. A
novel that in addition is a way for González Harbour to return to an event from her own past life.
Berna González Harbour is a journalist and currently heads up Babelia, the culture supplement of the newspaper
El País. She has an Information Sciences degree from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, has been a
correspondent in Moscow, and special correspondent in some twenty countries in conflict, as well as editor-in-chief
of the newspaper’s International section.
An ardent book and crime novel enthusiast, she published her first work in that genre, Verano en rojo, in 2012, in
which she introduced Commissioner María Ruiz, and which brought her considerable recognition. In Margen de error,
the second novel in the saga, she keeps the suspense coming at a steady pace.
Los ciervos llegan sin avisar is her latest novel in which she introduces Carmen to us, a financial analyst who sees
her world going to pieces in a country in the midst of a crisis, and tries to heal her wounds by investigating a strange
accident that took place over two decades earlier.
The reviews say:
"Berna González Harbour has been able
to understand police officers’ highly
unusual way of thinking and acting and
turn all her knowledge about their
profession into fiction and literature."
Lorenzo Silva
Writer
"Harbour captures the feelings of her
creatures, characters with substance, the
good guys and the bad guys, well
constructed, just like their worlds."
Justo Navarro
El País
"Los ciervos llegan sin avisar is excellently
recounted by Berna González Harbour.
This story is really good.”
Lilian Neuman
Culturas. La Vanguardia
"Commissioner Ruiz is here to stay in the
world of crime writing.”
Fernando Marías
Escritor
“A book that is mindful of our times and
has shades of True Detective”.
Almudena Ávalos
S Moda. El País
11
“González Harbour constructs the classic
crime novel that grows, and becomes
richer, in same way that good wines
improve over time. Los ciervos llegan sin
avisar is one of those marvelous crime
novels that fly by and entertain, but
continue to replay in your head.”
Elena Nieto
El Cultural. El Mundo
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
Verano en Rojo (Summer in Red) and
Margen de error (Margin of Error)
Berna González-Harbour
Publisher: RBA
About Verano en rojo (Summer in Red) and Margen de error (Margin of Error), the two novels featuring
Commissioner María Ruiz
Verano en rojo. Madrid, summer, 2010. The World Cup is underway and while all eyes are on the Spanish
team’s tortuous progress in South Africa, Commissioner Ruiz is faced with a sinister crime: a young man
has been found murdered. There is nothing to identify him, and no apparent motive or clues.
María, an attractive, conscientious and tenacious woman, begins an investigation which becomes
increasingly complicated. But she is not alone. Luna, a seasoned reporter and a master in his field, now
beleaguered by the digital era and the crisis, and Tomás, a brilliant police IT expert, are key to unraveling
the mystery. For them, the intrigue is as dizzying as that which accompanied the national soccer team
right through to its epic victory.
Margen de error. After a lengthy convalescence, Commissioner Ruiz is back. She returns on the very day
on which a man is found dead in some hedges in Retiro Park. It is Fall in Madrid, and there is tension in
the air as the protests of the ‘outraged’ (the 15 M Movement) interweave with the news about suicides
at a multinational. The latest body seems to fit into this workplace calamity, but nonetheless, there is
something that does not tally. María Ruiz gets dragged into a battle befitting of an age of greed and
inequality. Margen de error is a disturbing story that will take the reader’s breath away.
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
12
Malemort,
el impotente (Malemort, the Impotent)
Guillermo Roz
Fernando Quiñones Unicaja novel award
Publisher: Alianza
© Edu León
Aveyron, France, end of the 19th century. Malemort grows up in a once wealthy family of quirky farmers,
bankrupt, obsessed with escaping from their financial hardship, made worse by a plague that ravaged
the few vineyards they had. As a teenager, he meets Juliette, with whom he thinks he can build a better
life. Newly wed and deeply in love, his wife is hired by Widow Bruniquel, the most famous millionairess
in France. Jealous of the couple, the widow makes Juliette a proposal: she will lift her out of a life of
poverty forever, on the condition that she leave Malemort. When the fleeting marriage ends, a rumor starts
going round that Malemort is impotent. Driven crazy by heartbreak, he puts his all into a radical plan to
salvage his life: starting anew in America.
Guillermo Roz was born in Buenos Aires in 1973 and has been living in Madrid since 2002. He is an Arts graduate
from the Universidad Nacional of La Plata.
In 2014, he was awarded the Villa Marguerite Yourcenar grant in France and released Flotarium, published by the
University of Salento in Italy and the Universidad Autónoma of the State of Mexico, presented at the Guadalajara
International Book Festival. He has also written the novels: Les ruego que me odien, (I Beg You to Hate Me) with
which he won the first Francisco Ayala literature award in 2013; and Tendríamos que haber venido solos (We Should
Have Come Alone) published by Alianza Editorial, which earned him the title of Nuevo Talento Fnac (Fnac New Talent)
in 2012.
He contributes to Spain’s El País newspaper and Mexico’s El Universal.
Guillermo Roz’ latest book: Malemort, el Impotente, has won the sixteenth Fernando Quiñoñes Unicaja novel award).
The reviews say:
“With a steady, assured hand and a style
that at times seems to be strewn with
exactly the right words, Guillermo Roz has
written a beautiful, magnificent novel, that
without needing to adhere to a true story
manages to be faithful to the spirit of an
era and of an epic: that of a man who was
called Malemort, The Impotent; someone
who manages to cross the seas to save
himself and perhaps, with a great deal of
amor fati and self-love, at last be another,
be himself.”
“Malemort is a fascinating character, first
class material that Roz handles with
exquisite care and astounding skill."
Tino Pertierra
Mercurio
Diego Gándara
Librújula
“An unmissable story of well-recounted
disillusionment.”
Jesús Ferrer
La Razón
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
13
París
D.F.
Roberto Wong
Dos Passos First novel award
Publisher: Galaxia Gutenberg
© Daniel Mordzinski
In París D. F. everything starts with a map, or rather two superimposed maps. Arturo, the lead character,
is a young man who leads a humdrum life and wanders the streets of the Federal District searching for
the 105 square kilometer area of Paris, that ideal place, which knows no cruelty, where extraordinary
things can happen. One day, a hold-up in the pharmacy where he works throws his life into turmoil. The
perpetrator, taken down by the police, dies at his feet, but the feeling that the bullet could have reached
him is too disturbing. This chance happening is the beginning of the disaster and everything starts lurching
in the wrong direction: violence, sex, intertwining time and parallel destinies. Reality and delusion get
mixed up in this novel in which Roberto Wong tells us about the laws of fate and ill-fortune, but also survival
and the hostility of the cities we live in. París D. F. unveils a bold, original voice, which is capable of
shocking us.
Roberto Wong (Tamaulipas, México, 1982) developed his love for stories reading comics, a passion that he later
transferred to literature. At the age of 18, he left his home town to go and study in Mexico City. He enrolled on a
Mechanical Engineering course, but a year later left the university for a few months. Subsequently he studied
Communications, and began to write regularly during that degree, which he finished in 2005.
Nowadays he contributes articles to magazines such as Letras Libres and Tierra Adentro on literature and art. His
writings include articles on David Hockney, Felisberto Hernández and Jean Ferry, among others, although he has
also contributed essays and several other pieces.
For the last five years he has maintained a book review blog based on the idea that as Oscar Wilde noted, all criticism
is a form of autobiography. A keen traveller, he has lived in London and Mexico City and currently resides in San
Francisco.
París D.F. is his first novel.
The reviews say:
“On an urban grid where two cities are
superimposed, death and sex drives are
transformed in a novel about weariness,
unfulfilled desires and existential
emptiness. A romantic novel written in an
intrepidly contemporary code, or a
contemporary novel that makes us think
that the dark, wild side of romanticism
lives on.”
“Wong’s voice is powerful. The dialogues,
the portrayal of the characters, the
omnipresent but always stylized violence,
the non-linear form of the story, everything
points to an abundantly resourceful author,
with much to tell.”
“París D. F., by Mexican writer Roberto
Wong (Tamaulipas, 1982), won the first
Dos Passos award, aimed at acclaiming
first novels and therefore spotlighting new
authors. The initiative has started out very
well represented.”
Care Santos
El Cultural. El Mundo
Francisco Solano
Babelia. El País
Marta Sanz
Writer
International Rights
France (Editorial Christophe
Lucquin Éditeur)
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
14
A seis pasos de ti (Six Steps Away From You)
Fernando Olmeda
Publisher: Espasa
© Daniel Cebrián
A millionairess with a strange mental illness. An ambitious ex-model. A young woman getting over a breakup. An executive with a double life. An office clerk unhinged by an unfair dismissal. An eccentric, narcissistic
writer who has the need to control all those who live around him. Characters scarred by troubled childhoods
that shaped their futures. Other than their love of horses, these characters do not appear to be connected
in any way, but their lives intertwine in a complex network of relationships. In a world without distances,
human beings are much more alike than we think. And when we get carried away by love, hate or desire
for revenge, our decisions affect other people, that we most likely do not even know.
Fernando Olmeda weaves a tale about lives that cross paths, in which the main characters are constantly
searching for the way to happiness
A seis pasos de ti is a choral novel filled with intrigue, which delves into parent-child relationships and
their consequences, and reflects on the motives that drive us to act, the risks that lie in decision making
and the struggle against our inner demons.
Fernando Olmeda (Madrid, 1962) is a journalist and television professional, documentary director and writer. He is
an Information Sciences and Political Sciences graduate from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid. He has worked
on the Cadena SER radio network, and the television channels Telemadrid and Telecinco. Since 2007 he has been
working independently as a director and scriptwriter for television documentaries, programs and series.
He has written books on historical memory: El látigo y la pluma (The Whip and the Pen), and El Valle de los Caídos
(Valley of the Fallen), biographies: Gerda Taro, fotógrafa de guerra (Gerda Taro: Photographer of War), Gyenes, el
fotógrafo del optimismo (Gyenes: Photographer of Optimism) and on the Olympics: Españoles de oro (Spanish Gold
Medallists).
In 2006 he won the Ateneo-Ciudad de Valladolid award for novels with Contraseñas íntimas (Intimate Passwords).
A seis pasos de ti is his latest novel, published by Espasa.
The reviews say:
“A seis pasos de ti keeps you hooked from
the first page right through to the last.
Among the narrative techniques that the
author uses, there is a key event that
marks the life of each character when
what took place occurred.”
Isabel G. Caballero
Nueva Tribuna newspaper
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
15
Contar
la música (Recounting Music)
Jesús Ruiz Mantilla
© Vera Zátopková
Awaiting Publication - Non fiction
Publication date: November 2015
Publisher: Galaxia Gutenber
Over two decades, Jesús Ruiz Mantilla has been a music columnist for the daily newspaper El País.
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.
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.
The reviews say:
“A compelling, rigorous account of music
today, essential for getting to know about
the Venezuelan orchestra network, in which
I grew up.”
Gustavo Dudamel
Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
16