Translation Rights TQE / The Guitar Player

A new novel by Luis Landero is always a feast. However, with El guitarrista, the readers will perceive an inflexion, perhaps a new register, in his literary trajectory, which in itself, reserves some great surprises along with the quality and gratification to which his readers are accustomed: the initial coincidence that surprisingly brings this novel about formation, from the maturity of the author close to the adolescent narrator.

Emilio, an adolescent forced to work mornings as a mechanic’s apprentice in a gloomy workshop, and to study afternoons in an academy, lives those decisive years as «a labyrinth of instants, of promises» in his meetings with the guys to whom his mother rents a room. But one day, his cousin Raimundo steps into the picture upon his return from Paris and tells him of his success as a flamenco guitarist. Emilio allows himself to be dragged by the lure of the bohemian life that his cousin promises and learns to play the guitar with the hope, and even the conviction, of fleeing from the workshop and the classes. What he cannot possibly imagine is that his recent acquired skill with the strings will bring him into contact with his boss’s wife, Adriana, a young and stunning femme fatale, to whom he is forced to give guitar lessons. Emilio knows by intuition that his life could fall into an even more dangerous trap than the workshop, but he gladly accepts, for once, the challenge with which he is faced.

Luis Landero was born in Alburquerque (Badajoz, Spain) in 1948. He has a degree in Spanish Language and Literature from the Complutense University. He has worked as a literature teacher in the School of Dramatic Arts in Madrid and has been a visiting professor of Yale University. His successful literary debut took place in 1989 with the novel Juegos de la edad tardía (Games of the Late Age, Critics Prize and National Narrative Prize in 1990), and it was followed by Caballeros de fortuna (The Fortunate Knights, 1994), El mágico aprendiz (The Magician’s Apprentice, 1998), El guitarrista (The Guitarist, 2002), and Hoy, Júpiter (Today, Jupiter, 2007). This novel won the XIV Arcebispo Juan de San Clemente Prize. Landero, who has been translated into several languages, is one of the most important Spanish narrators of the last decades and one of the brightest literary essayists. He is the author of Entre líneas: el cuento o la vida (Between the Lines: Story vs. Life, 2000), where he uses the short story to meditate on the art of fiction, and of ¿Cómo le corto el pelo, caballero? (How Shall I Cut Your Hair, Sir?, 2004), a compilation of his best articles.