La sonrisa etrusca
Rights sold:
  • Chinese: Thinkingdom 
  • French: Métailié
  • German: Random House
  • Hebrew: Keter
  • Portuguese: Martins Fontes (Brasil)
  • Previously published in: Arabic (Academie Tunisienne des sciences);Complex Chinese (Crown, Taiwan);  Dutch (Menken); Korean (Munhakdongne);Italian: Il Saggiatore; Japanese (NHK Shuppan); Greek: Govostis; Lithuanian (Vaga); Portuguese: Teorema (Portugal);  Romanian: Univers; Russian: Raduga 
  • Full English translation available.

La sonrisa etrusca

Novel , 1985

Destino

Pages: 336

An old country man leaves his beloved Calabrian isolated house and travels to Milan to seek medical treatment. Moving in with his estranged son, Bruno sees his life transformed through a newly found bond with his baby grandson. He also lives his last passion: the love of a woman who will illuminate the final years of his life.

La sonrisa etrusca (The Etruscan Smile) was adapted into a movie in 2018 by the directors Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis, and produced by Arthur Cohn. The film has won several prizes at the World Film Festivals of Boston, Montréal, Rhode Island and Stony Brook. 

"It is written with a tenderness and a lucidity that perfectly reflect the zenith experience of its protagonist."  ABC

"The most lucid and rebellious writer in Spain's intellectual landscape."  El Periódico de Catalunya 

"A simple, compact, brilliant treasure without shrillness, like old steel." El País

La sonrisa etrusca - José Luis Sampedro