Dámaso Méndez and Tomás Montejo lead seemingly
unrelated parallel lives. The life of Dámaso is the story of a hatred whose
root can be found in his adolescence, when a boy his age stole his place in the
family and led to a confrontation followed by a rupture with his father, a man
eager to overcome his own personal failure through the success of his son. Ever
since that day, Dámaso has lived for his two passions, which are his hatred and
his thirst for vengeance. Tomás, on the other hand, is a writer and a teacher,
a young loner who is completely dedicated to his passion for books and
knowledge. He will come to experience love one day, accompanied by
disorderliness, and his life will take a surprising and tormenting turn.
‘Landero es quizá el mayor
narrador nato español de los últimos años. Un escritor necesario.’
Rafael Conte, El País
‘El escritor que nos sorprendió a todos con sus Juegos de
la edad tardía no ha hecho, desde entonces, más que confirmar su potencia
como novelista. La verdad de sus personajes y la fuerza transparente y
trabajada de su prosa hacen de Luis Landero uno de los grandes de la narrativa
española contemporánea.’
María Tena, Lateral
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.