Why They Do It Better

Spain and the Historical Novel

By Andrea Montejo -- Críticas, 6/1/2007

Matilde Asensi

Over the last few years, an unprecedented number of Spanish writers have exploded onto the global literary scene in what seems to be the publishing phenomenon of the decade: the rise of the historical thriller. While some may argue that these authors are simply riding Dan Brown’s wave of success, most of these novels were published in Spain long before The Da Vinci Code was even a blip on the screen. Five authors—Matilde Asensi, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Julia Navarro, Javier Sierra, and Ildefonso Falcones—are at the forefront of this movement. Together they have sold over 11 million copies in 40 countries.

But they are not alone: their success has opened the door for many other Spanish authors whose novels are starting to appear on bookshelves in such far flung places as Greenland, Australia, and China. And though most experts agree that the Dan Brown fever that continues to sweep the globe definitely contributed to these authors’ current popularity, they also recognize that there’s more to this phenomenon than just being in the right genre at the right time. Clearly, there is something these novelists are doing better than anyone else.

The original historical novelists

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Julia Navarro (c) Juan Manuel Fernandez

What’s different about Spanish novels is that they go through a rigorous process of investigation, documentation, and research,” Navarro tells Críticas over the phone from her home in Madrid. “When I write my novels, I aim not only to entertain, but to be as accurate as possible with the historical facts—I want my readers to trust me.”

For her first book, La hermandad de la Sábana Santa (Plaza & Janés, 2004; The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud, Bantam, 2006), Navarro, a journalist by training, spent about a year and a half researching the Shroud of Turin, which she confesses she knew very little about. After reading a newspaper article that sparked the idea to write the book, she consulted with several historian friends, read as many documents and history books as possible, and traveled to the locations where the novel would take place.

Many of these authors began their careers as journalists and therefore share Navarro’s obsession with factual accuracy. Asensi, for example, who was a journalist in Alicante before she turned to fiction, spends two to three years working on a novel, with only the last dedicated exclusively to writing. In El último Catón (Plaza & Janés, 2001; The Last Cato, Rayo, 2005)—where the protagonists embark on a quest throughout the seven ancient capitals of Christianity using Dante’s Divine Comedy as a guide—Asensi not only offers readers deep historical context, but literary and religious ones as well.

Enrique Joven

Other authors come from a different field altogether, and it is their individual expertise that ultimately informs and grounds the novels they write. An astrophysicist by training, Enrique Joven recently published in Spain El castillo de las estrellas (“The Castle in the Stars”; Roca Editorial, 2007), a captivating novel about Johannes Kepler, arguably one of the most influential astronomers of all times. Similarly, Emilio Calderón uses his expertise as a historian to set his best-selling El mapa del creador (“The Map of the Creator”; Roca Editorial, 2006) in Fascist Italy, where the two protagonists embark on a captivating quest to find a map allegedly traced by God.

Going global

Carlos Ruiz Zafón
(c) Jordi Belver

The first of these novels to break out as an international success was Ruiz Zafón’s La sombra del viento (Planeta, 2001; The Shadow of the Wind, Penguin, 2004). Although it takes place in the gothic Barcelona of the first half of the 20th century, it is less a historical thriller than a literary one, where books, not historical facts are at the heart of the enigma. The novel won numerous prizes throughout Europe and the United States, captivating readers like no Spanish novel had ever before. Tom Colchie, Ruiz Zafón’s U.S. literary agent, happily recalls the many letters received from booksellers across the country raving about how they’d never read anything like it before. “It was a subject that captured people’s minds,” says Colchie, “a book about books.”

For Colchie, who also represents several other Spanish and Latin American authors, this ability to connect with readers constitutes a great part of the success of these novels. “In today’s literary landscape, it is clear that the Joycian novel or the modernist novel has become irrelevant, and so has any literature that’s a product of elite intelligence,” he argues. “These writers, whether they have something important to say or just entertain, want to reach out to their readers.”

Javier Sierra (c) Eva Pastor

Despite being home to some of the most widely read authors of the 20th century, it took Spain 64 years to have its first New York Times bestseller (the list was first published in 1942). It wasn’t until 2006, when a novel by a fairly unknown author named Javier Sierra hit our shores with La cena secreta (Plaza & Janés, 2004; The Secret Supper, Atria, 2006), that the spell was finally broken.

Sierra sees the current interest in historical plots and religious mysteries as a reflection of a broader change in the tastes and needs of readers. “Since the beginning of the 20th century,” Sierra explains, “we have lived in an overly mechanical society, continually obsessed with progress.” No longer satisfied with a literature that talks about the here and now, readers “feel the need to return to a more magical perception of reality, one in which things are not so black and white,” he says. By embarking on a quest to uncover the truth behind religious and historical mysteries, these novels invite readers to question the very nature of what they have always believed to be true.

Spain is a country with a rich history, he adds, and when it comes to looking for the origins of Western civilization, it is natural that all eyes turn to Europe and the Mediterranean, the very heart of where it all started.

René Alegria, publisher of Rayo, an imprint of HarperCollins that specializes in Spanish-language books, agrees. “With its mosaic past—layered with Islam and Christianity, monarchs, and later in the 20th century with fascism and Franco—Spain has an amazing history,” he says from his office in Manhattan. “The contemporary authors emerging from the country have managed to blend this magnificent past into an enlightening and entertaining experience for any reader from anywhere in the world.”

Reaching wider audiences

The rapid expansion of the use of Spanish language over the past few decades has significantly contributed to the worldwide success of these authors. In the United States, more and more editors can actually read Spanish and therefore evaluate these books for publication, making it infinitely easier for publishers to give them a chance in the U.S. market. “Spain’s entrée into America’s commercial literary scene is new,” says Alegria. “Their talent base has always been there though. This country’s simply catching up to what’s been working in Spain for years.”

It is also a question of finding quality literature at a time when the United States is arguably failing to produce as many good authors as it used to. According to Colchie, “American literature is becoming less and less interesting as a direct result of the industrialization of literature through workshops.” Though texts are often well written, he adds, “the stories they tell are dead. This is pushing editors to look elsewhere for new, more exciting things.”

Ildefonso Falcones

This may explain why more and more translations of Spanish novels are popping up on American bookshelves. U.S. publishers are catching the Spanish wave, and a growing number of best sellers made in Spain will soon be published in English. This summer, Atria is releasing a revised edition of Javier Sierra’s first novel, La dama azul (The Lady In Blue) in both Spanish and English. In 2008, HarperCollins will publish an English edition of both Esteban Martin and Andreu Carranza’s La clave Gaudí (“The Gaudí Key”), a modernist novel about the famous architect, and Enrique Joven’s El castillo de las estrellas (“The Castle in the Stars”). And finally, Dutton, which already published Juan Gómez-Jurado’s God’s Spy (Espía de Dios, Roca Editorial, 2006) last April, will publish Falcones’s mega-bestselling hit La catedral del mar (“The Cathedral of the Sea”) which has already sold a million copies in 27 countries] in 2008.

As more and more of these authors continue to rise in both Spanish and English, the question of who will last beckons. “For literature to be good, it needs to be authentic,” says Sierra. “Readers know how to distinguish between what’s real and what’s imitation. When all is said and done, it’s ultimately the reader who decides.”

Highlighted Titles
El último Catón (The Last Cato) Asensi, Matlide. (2004) Plaza & Janés ISBN 0-307-20944-X	Todo bajo el cielo (Everything Under the Sun) Asensi, Matilde. (2007) Rayo ISBN 978-0-06135-330-7
El mapa del creador (The Map of the Creator ) Calderón, Emilio. 2006 Roca Editorial ISBN 84-96544-61-3	La catedral del mar (The Cathedral of the Sea ) Falcones, Ildefonso. 2006 Grijalbo ISBN 0-307-37665-6
Espía de Dios (God's Spy ) Gómez-Jurado, Juan. 2005 Roca Editorial ISBN 84-96544-15-X	La clave Gaudí (The Gaudí Key ) Martin, Esteban & Andreu Carranza. 2007 Plaza & Janés ISBN 0-307-39187-6
La Biblia de barro (The Bible of Clay ) Navarro, Julia. 2006 Plaza & Janés ISBN 0-307-35020-7	La hermandad de la Sábana Santa (The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud ) Navarro, Julia. 2005 Plaza y Janés ISBN 0-307-34335-9
La sangre de los inocentes (The Blood of the Innocent ) Navarro, Julia. 2007 Plaza & Janés ISBN 0-307-39778-7	La sombra del viento (The Shadow of the Wind ) Ruiz Zafón, Carlos. 2003 Planeta ISBN 978-0-97487-240-7
La cena secreta (The Secret Supper ) Sierra, Javier. 2005 Plaza & Janés ISBN 0-30734-445-2	La dama azul (The Blue Lady ) Sierra, Javier. 2007 Atria ISBN 978-1-41654-948-2