April 7th, 2022 (3:00-4:30pm Boston / 21:00-22:30 Madrid)
Online via Zoom | RSVP: https://bit.ly/RSVP-Observatorio o info-observatory@fas.harvard.edu
No observer of the Spanish detective novel could ignore the influence of the North American noir genre. In this session, writer Lorenzo Silva, who considers himself a literary borrower of Raymond Chandler and is recognized as one of the main voices of criminal fiction in Spain nowadays, will explore the harmony between Spanish authors and Anglo-Saxon poetics of the noir novel and what is known now as true crime. For example, in the unpublished crime novel by Emilia Pardo Bazán, recovered in the year of her centenary (2021) and in works by Benito Pérez Galdós (El Crimen de la Calle Fuencarral), there exist ideas and coincidences that suggest a connection between Chandler’s vision––or that of other U.S. authors––and Spanish realist novelists who follow in Cervantes’ footsteps. Indeed, for Silva, Philip Marlowe might not be Don Quixote but at times the two seem quite alike.
Before becoming an acclaimed crime novelist, Lorenzo Silva studied law at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and practiced as an in-house corporate lawyer. His novels have earned him international recognition; he has also written numerous short stories, articles, and literary essays, as well as done work as a translator and as an editor. In 1997 La flaqueza del bolchevique (adapted to film by director Manuel Martín Cuenca) was a finalist for the Premio Nadal, an award he went on to win in 2000 with El alquimista impaciente; and in 2012 La marca del meridiano was recognized with the Premio Planeta. In turn, in 2010 he was appointed Guardia Civil Honorario for his contribution to the image of the corps in his work.