La vida antes de marzo

Life Before March

UK panel´s choice SPRING 2010

Author:

Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón [1]

Publisher:

Editorial Anagrama S.A. [2]

Year of Publication:

2009

Pages:

192

ISBN:

978-84-339-7200-2

Genre:

Literature

SPRING

2010

Season:

SPRING 2010

Read report:

La vida antes de marzo [3]

Two strangers meet on a train that has no specific origin or final destination. It is the year 2024 and two thousand wagons make up this enormous iron serpent. The journey between Bagdad and Lisbon is a long one, but the train doesn’t stop to pick up or drop off passengers. Two of these passengers, Martin and Angel, strike up a relationship and start to sample the wines they come across in each region of their journey. The alcohol helps to loosen their tongues and provokes the stories that weave together during this journey to an unexpected destination; stories that coalesce into an oriental but sharply contemporary tale. Martin has had an affair with a Moroccan girl and Angel has been mixed up with an extremist group. Twenty years have passed, but his partner in crime, ‘The Tunisian’, is threatening to come after him to claim some unpaid dues. Fear and painful recollection, but also hope, accompany the passengers on this journey. The parallel tracks of these two lives have just crossed, leading to stories about a champion pig fattener, erotic revelations of a paternalistic sexual athlete or a surrealist football match between Islamic extremists, and finally a revelation of what life was like before March, before that March 11th.

Publishing rights available from

Company:

Editorial Anagrama

Address:

C/ Pedró de la Creu 58 - 08034 Barcelona

Contact:

Paula Canal

Phone:

(+34) 932 037 652

E-mail:

pcanal@anagrama-ed.es [4]

Website:

http://www.anagrama-ed.es [5]

Additional information

Prizes and reviews:

Critics’ Prize at the Berlin Film Festival for “Habla Mudita”
Golden Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival for “Camada Negra” (1977).
Critics´Prize at the Moscow Film Festival for “Maravillas” (1980)
Donatello Prize for Demonios en el “Jardin” (1982)
Maravillas (1980); “Demonios en el jardín” (1982), Critics’ Prize at the Moscow Film Festival and Donatello Prize
Golden Shell at the San Sebastian Film Festival for “La mitad del cielo” (1986).
He has also won Fotogramas de Plata Prize for Best Film four times
Grand Prize at the Cannes Television Festival for “El Quijote” (1992)
Premio Ondas for Cosas que dejé en La Habana.
The Jury Prize at the Málaga Film Festival for “Todos estamos invitados” (2008)