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, which won the XI Sonrisa Vertical Prize. She has been accompanied by the acclaim of readers and critics ever since. She’s the author of ten novels and two books of short stories that have confirmed her as one of the most solid and internationally-known narrators in recent Spanish literature. Many of her works have been taken to the big screen, and her novel, El corazón helado, one of the most acclaimed and long-lasting successes in current Spanish literature, has received, among other awards, the Fundación Lara Prize, the prizes of the booksellers in Madrid and Seville, the Rapallo Carige in Italy and the Prix Méditerranée in France. Her previous novel Inés y la alegría was awarded the Critic’s Prize in Madrid 2011 and the Elena Poniatowska Prize 2011 and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize 2011, both in Mexico.