What books can take me behind closed doorways or present me different sides of town?
I’ve a weak spot for the play “Bohemian Lights,” by Ramón María del Valle-Inclán. In it, we spend virtually 24 hours with the poet Max Estrella, reflecting on the decadence of Spanish society within the Twenties (generally, reflecting on the decadence of Spanish society in any period is one in all Madrilenians’ obsessions). The play mentions many locations that also exist: the chocolate store in San Ginés, the mirror-lined Callejón del Gato (Cat Alley). I’d additionally suggest “The Maravillas District,” an autobiographical novel by Rosa Chacel that takes place within the streets of a Malasaña very totally different from the gentrified district beloved by college students (and vacationers) at the moment. To proceed attending to know a Madrid far faraway from postcards, not solely socially but additionally geographically, it’s best to learn “A Working Lady,” by Elvira Navarro. It’s a reflection on the precarity of labor, particularly within the area of tradition: The protagonist works as a freelancer within the publishing business, and barely survives within the neighborhood of Aluche.
What author is everybody speaking about? And which books are they studying?
Almudena Grandes. Her work, which incorporates novels, quick tales and articles, is a protracted love letter to Madrid, and she or he died in November 2021; the photographs of her funeral are transferring, with Republican flags mingling together with her books within the palms of hundreds of readers. She wrote eloquently about Spain’s latest previous — the Second Republic, the Civil Struggle and the years of dictatorship that adopted.
“The Ages of Lulu” is probably her hottest ebook that has been translated into English, however I want “The Frozen Coronary heart,” additionally a Madrilenian novel, and the beginning of her most political part.
As for the ebook that everybody is studying — in Madrid, in Spain, on the earth! — it’s “Unhealthy Behavior,” by Alana S. Portero, which will probably be revealed in the USA by HarperCollins in April 2024, in a translation by Mara Faye Lethem. It tells the story of a working-class transgender girl stuffed with rage and sweetness, ache and poetry, who walks via the neighborhoods of Chueca and Malasaña, within the metropolis middle, and San Blas, within the suburbs. (By the way in which, I’ve simply realized that she and Almudena Grandes are the one two authors I’ve beneficial who have been born in Madrid, which confirms my idea.)
Who’re the literary icons I would see on road indicators, statues or public monuments?
Though he didn’t write any books about Madrid, town permeated the whole lifetime of Federico García Lorca. He settled right here in 1919 and at all times returned after stays in America or visits to his household in Granada; it was in Madrid that he labored on lots of his finest books. It’s simple to hint Lorca’s footsteps via town: the Residencia de Estudiantes the place he met Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, the Café Gijón the place his cohort would collect, the Ateneo de Madrid cultural establishment, his final home at 96 Calle de Alcalá (now dwelling to a bookstore) and the levels the place his performs premiered. Following this Lorca route, you might finish by leaving flowers at his statue within the Plaza de Santa Ana, in entrance of the Teatro Español.
