Manuel Vilas

Finalist – 2019 Planeta Prize

From the heart of his memory, a man carrying as many years of past as he does hopes for the future illuminates, through his recollections, his own story—the story of his generation and of a country. A story that sometimes hurts, but always accompanies.

The overwhelming success of his latest novel takes the protagonist on a world tour: a journey with two faces. The public one, in which he meets his readers, and the private one, in which he uses every moment of solitude to search for his own truth. A truth that comes to light after the death of his parents, his divorce, and his life alongside a new woman—a life in which his children become the cornerstone of his urgent need to find happiness.

Halfway between confession and autofiction, the author writes a story that draws strength from the past and propels itself toward what has not yet happened. A hopeful search for joy.

“Even in its smallest details, the writer unfolds a burning, incendiary emotion.” Diario Córdoba

“An intimate and relatable book, in which we see ourselves reflected on many of its pages.” El Español

“A poetic and electrifying book.” El Mundo

“A masterful book—difficult yet easy, eloquent, complex, admirable in its furious simplicity, contradictorily elemental and wise, vast yet intimate, tender and somber.” Nuevatribuna.es

“Manuel Vilas’s writing is spontaneous and fresh at first glance, yet deeply literary upon closer attention.” Euro Mundo Global