All is changing and the way to read books too. What I want to say is that in a novel you can find a lot of characters with ordinary personalities, others could be stereotypes and not ever but sometimes you can find out that the main character is a city, while you are reading you feel that without it the story should be another one. Well, I explain all of this to speak about a novel that I loved when I read: The Wind Shadow by Carlos Ruiz Zafón where Barcelona is one of these characters. The plot of the novel happens in Barcelona during the forty years. The streets that appears in the book are nowadays well known by us.
In one hand I write about this because if you want you can walk by this Barcelona of forty (with a few of imagination) and visit the same places where the characters had been there. There are a tourist company which organise this kind of visit with an incredible tourist guide who read some parts of the book that gets you move on the story.
And in the other hand I want to encourage everybody who really love read to read this amazing novel and to make this original visit of Barcelona. I'm sure that all the people that have been made the route besides of enjoy it very much they have been learn a lot of new things about the old city center of Barcelona.
1 comment:
When I read your comment I immediately think in novels where the main character is Barcelona, and I am very surprised because I find some.
The Chatedral of the Sea is a historical novel by Ildefonso Falcones. The book is set in Barcelona
The City of Marvels, 1986 by Eduardo Mendoza, is probably his most famous novel, and it is about the social and urban evolution of Barcelona between the Universal Expositions of 1888 and 1929. It was adapted to the screen by Mario Camus in 1999.
Last evenings with Teresa, 1965 by Juan Marsé who won the 2008 Cervantes Prize. The story takes place in Barcelona and there are some very well written descriptions that transport us to Barcelona quarters like “El Carmel” or “Sant Gervasi”.
Francisco González Ledesma (1927, Barcelona). Writer and journalist, in 1984 he won the Prize Planet by sentimental Chronicle in red. He writes soma detective fiction books that take place in Barcelona. Inspector Mendez is a character created by him. Immersed in the dark streets of the modern Barcelona, Mendez guides us to the study of contemporary Catalan society, its culture and its social conflicts.
In relation with literature routes in Barcelona, “Cultruta” is a cultural leisure company in Barcelona. This company offers cultural walking tours in Barcelona. These tours are not developed for regular tourist purpose, but for people interested in a deeper knowledge of Catalan culture, especially in literature and history.
Nowadays this company offers some cultural walking tours, both in Catalan and Spanish language about Mercé Rodoreda novels and Carlos Ruiz Zafon novels.
If you want this company organizes walking tours in English. The website is: www.cultruta.com.
Finally I want to write about one of Barcelona’s least known routes. It is especially interesting for literature lovers of Vazquez Montalbán. This author died in October 2003, but his books and character are still alive and present in cities such as Barcelona. One of his most famous characters is the detective Pepe Carvalho. His wanderings throughout the city and the places he (and Montalbán) frequented can help people to find an interesting and easy route in Barcelona.
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