The Three Cultures of the Mediterranean Foundation will host the presentation of the book. Seven Cities in Africa. Stories from Spanish Morocco, by the writer and winner of the Planeta Prize Lorenzo Silva, who will be joined by the writer Juan Eslava Galán.
In this work, the author makes a historical review in which the Spanish cities located on African soil become the protagonists of the story. Ceuta, Larache, Tetuan, Chaouen, Melilla, Nador, Al Hoceima: seven cities in Africa, seven unique enclaves on the northwest fringe of the continent, united or separated by borders over the centuries. Today, two of these cities are Spanish and the other five Moroccan, but in all of them there are strong traces of the natives of the peninsula, who nurtured their census and laid out their streets.
This book is a journey to the years in which the last meeting of the seven took place, between the second and third decade of the last century, with the conquest and pacification of the Protectorate. It is a story of struggle, but also of construction, in which attempts at understanding and mutual passions intersect. It is a journey to spaces of common memory, to a territory where the blood and the aspirations of Spaniards and Moroccans have been intermingling since time immemorial.
Lorenzo Silva (Madrid, 1966) has written, among others, the novels The Bolshevik's weakness (finalist for the 1997 Nadal Prize), November without violets, The inner substance, The urinal, The hidden angel, The name of our people, Carte blanche (Spring Prize 2004), Fierce children and the Getafe Trilogycomposed of Someday, when I can take you to Warsaw, The desert hunter y The rain in Paris. He is the author of the book of short stories The adolescent despot and from the travel book From the Rif to the Yebala. Journey to the dream and the nightmare of Morocco. In 2006 he published with Luis Miguel Francisco And in the end, the wara book-report on the intervention of the Spanish troops in Iraq, in 2008 an essay on Law in Kafka's work and in 2010 Serene in danger. The historical adventure of the Guardia Civil (Algaba Essay Prize). He is also the author of the detective series starring the investigators Bevilacqua and Chamorro, which started with The far country of ponds (Ojo Crítico Award 1998) and was followed by The impatient alchemist (Nadal Prize 2000), The fog and the maiden, No one is worth more than another, The queen without a mirror y The water strategyWith the latest installment to date, The meridian markhas won the 2012 Planeta Prize.
Juan Eslava Galán (Arjona, Jaén, 1948) holds a doctorate in Literature. His essays include Spanish history told for sceptics (2010), A history of the civil war that no one will like (2005), The years of fear (2008), Catholicism explained to the sheep (2009), From the espadrille to the six hundred (2010), Homo erectus (2011) y The decade that took our breath away (2011). He is the author of the novels In search of the unicorn (Planeta Prize 1987), The gentlemanly gentleman (Ateneo de Sevilla Prize 1991), Miss (Fernando Lara Novel Prize 1998), The mule (2003), Wolf King (2009) y Last passions of the gentleman Almafiera (2011). He is the author of several international bestselling novels under the pseudonym Nicholas Wilcox.
Co-organised with the José Manuel Lara Foundation.
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