A powerful magical realism novel about the Spanish Civil War? A magnificent, award-winning Gothic melodrama set in Madrid in 1950? A gripping ghost story featuring a dancer injured in World War I? Come learn about three of the hot-off-the-press hits of the season, written by David Uclés of Andalusia (La península de las casas vacías [The Peninsula of Empty Houses], with several printings in just a few months), Beatriz Alcaná of Salamanca (Teseo en llamas [Theseus Burning], which won the Kelvin and City of Salamanca awards), and Bruno Puelles of Madrid (Lo frágil y lo eterno [The Fragile and the Eternal], his first book for adults). Joined by Catalan author and editor Claudia Casanova, author of La dama i el lleó [The Lady and the Lion] and considered one of the great successful hybrids of historical fiction and fantasy, the participants in the 42 Festival’s first-ever roundtable discussion on the topic, moderated by the ever-insightful Carla Plumed (also known as Café de Tinta), they’ll show that good novels are as factual as they are fantastic. Or, in other words, that history, like reality and fantasy, is just another way of understanding ourselves and explaining ourselves.

Guests:

Beatriz Alcaná

David Uclés

Bruno Puelles

Claudia Casanova

Moderator:

Carla Plumed