Translation Rights TQE / Cardboard Castles

María José Sánchez works as an art valuer in an auction house in Madrid. One day she receives a call from an old friend, Jaime González, announcing that a common friend, Marcos, has committed suicide.  That makes her go back in time to when she was a Fine Arts student, when she still dreamed of being an artist, and makes her relive the intense love story which she shared with both men. María José reconstructs the passion of that ménage à trois, and realises how it marked all of them deeply, for good and for bad, when they were in their early twenties and everything seemed possible. Following in the footsteps of Jules et Jim, the overwhelming happiness of the group allows for both the discussion and exploration of sex.  It is also a test of the coexistence and rivalry between the three young painters, a reflection on the bonds between love and creativity.

With Cardboard Castles (Castillos de Cartón), Almudena returns in part to the world of the eighties, years of commotion and excess, of erotic liberation, but also of authentic passion that brought to life the image of youth and happiness.

Almudena Grandes was born in Madrid in 1960. She became widely recognized as a writer in 1989 with her novel Las edades de Lulú (The Ages of Lulu), which won the XI Sonrisa Vertical Prize. She has been accompanied by the acclaim of readers and critics ever since. Her novels Te llamaré Viernes (I’ll Call You Friday), Malena es un nombre de tango (Malena Is a Tango Name), Atlas de geografía humana (Atlas of Human Geography), Los aires difíciles (The Wind from the East), Castillos de cartón (Cardboard Castles), along with her books of short stories Modelos de mujer (Models of Womankind) and Estaciones de paso (Stations On the Way), and the collection of articles Mercado de Barceló (The Barceló Market), have confirmed that she is one of the most solid and internationally-known narrators in recent Spanish literature.