Snippet: Benzo’s “The ashes of innocence”

Fernando Benzo, Las cenizas de la inocencia [The ashes of innocence], 2019, 320 p.

publisher’s summary:

I had just turned 17 when I killed a man.

Now, after so much life lived, with the memories of that time blurred in a confused mix of contradictory feelings that have replaced the concrete images, I am still able to remember that moment: the dry boom of the shot, that look in which in one single and final moment there mixed surprise, panic and the resignation in front of the inevitable, the dark stain that appeared in that moment on the front of the shirt, and my hand holding the weapon with so much force as if I believed that I could crush it until it disappeared.

That shot somehow also killed me. Or at least killed the person that I was turning into. That night somebody died so that I was reborn.

Another life was interrupted. The life of somebody that was me and that I have never been again.

On the streets of the capital there is fought a war, very different from the one that has just ended. Behind a false appearance of calm, in a city where hunger and poverty mark the daily life, the gangs of marketeers struggle for the control of the black market, tolerated by the police and politicians.

The men that lead the illegal business networks meet every night at the Dixie, a discrete jazz club where they close deals and plan their crimes among cocktails, music and beautiful women. It’s there that Emilio works as a waiter, an adolescent anxious to live adventures, who enters by chance in this clandestine world by becoming friends with Nico, a young and ambitious smuggler. Together they will enjoy a life that lets them overcome the misery that surrounds them, until they find themselves forced to face dramatic decisions that will change their destiny for ever.

The author:

Fernando Benzo (Madrid, 1965) is a law graduate and civil administrator of the Spanish state.

In 1989 he published his first novel, Los años felices [The happy years], after winning the Castilla-La Mancha region prize. For some years he wrote only short stories and won, among others, the Premio Internacional de Cuentos de la Fundación Max Aub [Max Aub foundation international story prize], and prizes of the Gabriel Miró and Gabriel Aresti  contests. Diez cuentos tristes [Ten sad stories] is the collection of his prize-winning stories.

With his second novel, Mary Lou y la vida cómoda [Mary Lou and the comfortable life], he won the pretigious Kutxa-Ciudad de Irún [prize of the city of Irun – Basque savings bank] in 1994. Since then he published the novels La traición de las sirenas [The mermaids’ betrayal], Después de la lluvia [After the rain](Premio Ciudad de Majadahonda [city of M. prize]), Nunca repetiré tu nombre [I will never repeat your name] and Los náufragos de la Plaza Mayor [The stranded of the main square]. He also tried other genres, such as theater, with the work Scottie (theater prize of Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago), or the non-fiction story Héroes inesperados [Unexpected heroes].

Benzo combines his literary creation with his professional career in public service, which took him during the last years to be Undersecretary for Education, Culture and Sports and Culture Secretary [highest rank below the minister].

This blogger likes the book’s cover that reminds him of Raymond Chandler or Graham Greene novels.

SOURCE: PRH Spain (publisher)

Snippet: Sánchez-Garnica’s “Sofia’s suspicion”

Paloma Sánchez-Garnica, La sospecha de Sofía [Sofia’s suspicion] , 2019, 656 p.

publisher’s summary:

Sofia’s and Daniel’s boring life changes radically when he receives an anonymous letter in which he is told that Sagrario, whom he adores, is not his real mother, and that if he wants to know the truth about his origins, he needs to travel to Paris that same night. Intrigued, he asks his father about this, and his father tells him to let the past be past and not investigate too much. But there are questions that need an answer, and this search triggers a series of terrible events and unexpected encounters of unfortunate outcome, which disrupt his life and that of his wife Sofía for ever. Madrid, Paris and its May of 1968, the Berlin Wall, the Stasi and the KGB, the Spanish counterintelligence of the late Franco period, and three characters in search of their identity are the keys to this fantastic novel with the unmistakeable stamp of Paloma Sánchez-Garnica.

All of this sounds like good entertainment but not necessarily great literature. The blogger doesn’t remember how the book gained his attention; probably through a recommendation on “Página 2”, Spanish state TV’s literary program.

SOURCE: Planeta (publisher)

Snippet: Madrid and Lisbon book fairs 2019

Madrid Book Fair, 31 May – 16 June, Retiro park

official website (Spanish)

With a focus on the visualization of women (to reach a 44% of the authors participating in panels, book signings, etc. – while a 65% of visitors are women) and the Dominican Republic as the guest of honor.

361 stalls: 207 occupied by publishers, 113 by book sellers, 30 by organizations, and 11 by book distributors.

Lisbon Book Fair, 31 May – 16 June, Eduardo VII park

official website (Portuguese); “Visit Portugal” website (English)

 

For this blogger it is difficult to understand why the capitals of the two Iberian countries have their book fairs at the very same time, but there might be economies of scale savings if they invite foreign authors for book signings; the Portuguese market seems to receive a lot of the titles of Spanish authors, less so the other way round. In general, there seems to be an even lower interest in literature in Portugal than in Spain; though he doesn’t have the figures to prove this, it is just an impression one gets from gleaning the online press of both countries…

SOURCE: La Vanguardia, June 1, 2019, p. 35 (printed edition) [Madrid]