Almudena Grandes has gone, the literary world mourns her unexpected departure

Big Almudena.

Big Almudena.

“My readers, who know me well, know that they are very important to me. Whenever they ask me about them, I answer the same thing, that they are my freedom ”. This is how Almudena Grandes wrote in her usual column in El País on October 10 when addressing the difficult issue of cancer that afflicted him. Always lucid, with a meaningful verb, it is hard to believe a month and a half later she is no longer with us.

Saturday, November 27, 2021 will go down in history as a dark date, like the day one of the most illuminated pens of contemporary Hispanic letters was extinguished. The mastermind behind The frozen heart y Episodes of an endless war has left after a tough battle with cancer.

Mourning in the Hispanic Literary World

The historian and writer Almudena Grandes he was just 61 years old. The woman who portrayed the reality of recent Spain like few others died at her residence in Madrid leaving his entourage of readers and the community at large with the heartbeat tear.

His plans did not foresee such an upcoming departure, as he also stressed in his column: “I am in the best hands, safe and confident… Among all the characters that exist, my favorites are the survivors, and I am not going to disappoint myself, much less my own protagonists ”.

An immeasurable legacy

Almudena Grandes leaves behind and for posterity a huge compendium of major works, praised and awarded for its complexity and depth. And the fact is that the author had a very unique way of approaching the story, without the narrow customary stereotypes; She knew how to give the much-needed humanity to the harsh circumstances of Spanish society that she portrayed in her lines, a determining factor that made her readers immediately connect with her.

Quote by the writer Almudena Grandes.

Quote by the writer Almudena Grandes.

The more than twenty awards received for their work —Among them the National Narrative Prize (2018) and the International Journalism Prize 2020 from the International Press Club— speak clearly of featherweight. And it would not have been strange that the Nobel Prize for Literature next year or the following - his name had already resounded among the favorites for a long time - but he played this unexpected crowing of dark roosters.

Novels

  • The ages of Lulu (1989)
  • I'll call you friday (1991)
  • Malena is a tango name (1994)
  • Atlas of human geography (1998)
  • Rough Winds (2002)
  • Cardboard castles (2004)
  • The frozen heart (2007)
  • Kisses on bread (2015)

Episodes of an endless war

  • Main article: Episodes of an endless war
    • Agnes and joy (2010)
    • The Jules Verne Reader (2012)
    • Manolita's three weddings (2014)
    • Dr. García's patients (2017)
    • Frankenstein's mother (2020)

Story books

  • Women models (1996)
  • Way stations (2005)

Articles

  • Barceló Market (2003)
  • The perpetual wound (2019)

Collaborations

  • The good daughter. Story in Mothers and Daughters of Laura Freixas
  • Species under protection. Story in Once upon a time peace

Children's literature

  • Goodbye, Martinez! (2014)

Film adaptations

  • The ages of Lulu (from Bigas Luna, 1990)
  • Malena is a tango name (from Gerardo Herrero, 1995)
  • Even if you do not know it (from Juan Vicente Córdoba, 2000). Adaptation of the story «The vocabulary of the balconies», from his work Models of women
  • Geography of desire - adaptation of Atlas of human geography; Chilean miniseries by Boris Quercia and devised by María Izquierdo Huneeus, 2004)
  • Rough Winds (from Gerardo Herrero, 2006)
  • Atlas of human geography (from Azucena Rodríguez, 2007)
  • Cardboard castles (from Salvador García Ruiz, 2009)

Be the first to comment

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

*

*

  1. Responsible for the data: Miguel Ángel Gatón
  2. Purpose of the data: Control SPAM, comment management.
  3. Legitimation: Your consent
  4. Communication of the data: The data will not be communicated to third parties except by legal obligation.
  5. Data storage: Database hosted by Occentus Networks (EU)
  6. Rights: At any time you can limit, recover and delete your information.