El amargo don de la belleza / The Bitter Gift of Beauty
Novel , 1995
Planeta
With the delicacy of a watercolour painter and the attention to detail of a miniaturist, the writer traces a fascinating portrait of the life in the Nile centuries before Christ. It’s a journey through time, amplified through constant reflections on the movements of the human heart. The grand themes of maturity, death, the ephemeral, love, transcendence through art and divinity are brought into focus through the spiritual feats of the protagonist, the Cretan painter, Keftén. However, The Bitter Gift of Beauty is also a story of a unique spiritual experience: the birth and twilight of the first monotheist religion, advanced by the pharaoh Akhenaton and his queen Nefertiti. The enigma of these two characters takes over this painter, an obsession extended to the city the royal couple built as a symbol of their religious revolt: the city of The Horizon of the Aten.