Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
Transcription
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 ...... BEST-SELLERS RANKING SINCE RELEASE ...... 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 ...... 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 [email protected] Raquel Sánchez Gallardo 0034 91 521 58 12 [email protected] 24
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