If reading is going on a journey, authors like Xavier Moro, Javier Reverte o David B Gil, Among others, they are our guides towards the discovery of distant places, exotic customs and eccentric lifestyles for our habitual ethnocentrism. To manage to make those remote spaces habitable scenarios, new realities in which to introduce the reader is really a virtue.
And there are many ways to do it. It can be through historical novels set in distant locations, or through travel books turned into valuable literature.
Talking about Javier Moro, nobody like him to fascinate us with new worlds within this old planet, there where the western way of life seems something that is distant a universe. And precisely the brilliance of that difference ends up awakening an ecological and even anthropological conscience that the author transmits in many of his stories that combine fiction injected into real situations.
These are days when even historical novels run the risk of yielding to the ephemeral point of the bestseller. With that extra conscientious intentionality, with that added sociological and ecological projection Javier Moro earns points to become one of the few long-selling authors towards the conversion into classical literature towards our future, for that sum of capital gains that complement each of its narratives.
Adventurer and versatile creator. He has also displayed his good work in the world of cinema: among others, with those memorable forays on celluloid about the biography Ramón J. Sender (Do you remember the nascent childhood love between José, played by Jorge Sanz, and Valentina ...)
Thus, it is easy to understand the great significance of this author whose bibliography I am now concerned with in rescuing my recommended novels.
Top 3 recommended books by Javier Moro
The rule is you
The Amazon was incorporated into the author's imagination with its own entity since back in 1992 he moved around his environment for years trying to reconstruct the life of a well-known ecologist who died a few years ago.
From those experiences, several stories were born and indelible scenarios were established that also served for this novel, winner of the Planeta award in 2011.
The History of Pedro I of Brazil is one of the most unique that can be known about a monarch. As king who shared sovereignty between Portugal and Brazil back in the early nineteenth century, one fine day he decided to declare the independence of Brazil, becoming emperor of the new free state.
The thing was not so improvised and the consequences of his determination caused festering and conflict.
But beyond the ruling party, the figure of Pedro I, a man in his twenties at the head of the first great country in South America, surprises with his unofficial records hovering over him with the shadow of the most human contradictions, a taste for worldly temptations. Between glory and failures, until an end in which, strangely, he decided that his time as king had expired.
To flower of skin
Diseases, epidemics and the little scientific knowledge of the early nineteenth century. still extended until the twentieth century (remember the Spanish flu of 1918).
One of the most unique cases in this fight against invincible enemies, viruses and bacteria that could spread like rain in a world that was beginning to interact, is the Royal Vaccine Philanthropic Expedition.
This expedition was headed by Dr. Francisco Xavier Balmis and he intended to distribute vaccines for smallpox throughout the domains of the Spanish empire. It was intended that children did not die when affected by this disease.
The ship left La Coruña supported by Carlos IV, but not everyone was in favor of that health company. The Church once again faced the idea and setbacks came from its opposition in addition to the untimely circumstances of the trip through all the seas of the world for 3 years.
22 orphaned children inoculated by the vaccine, Dr. Balmis himself, his assistant Josep Salvany and the caregiver Isabel Zendal. A real and fascinating journey made even more adventurous if possible under the narration of Javier Moro who focuses much of the narrative weight on the role of Isabel.
Indian passion
Expert in novelizing great stories more or less buried with the passing of time (Another great novel in this sense is Mi Pecado, about the importance of the life of the Spanish actress Conchita Montenegro), Javier Moro focused on this occasion in life scored by Anita Delgado.
When you begin to know about this woman, it is strange to think how she could become a great queen in India. Ana MarÃa Delgado Briones was a dancer who, at the tender age of 16, at the beginning of the XNUMXth century, met the Maharaja of Kaphurtala. Or rather he knew her, because as soon as he saw her act he wanted to take her with him.
After the girl's initial reluctance, she finally agreed. This is how we got until January 28, 1908, when Anita married in India with all honors, with the then ruler of one of the main principalities of great India.
The question is to delve into what came next, if everything was a whim of the millionaire majará. What there is no doubt is that the young woman's life changed radically and, in her youth, with the cultural contrast of her origins and her new destiny, adding her strong character that already confronted her with her father when she decided to dedicate herself to the cuplé dance. , ended up writing a fascinating intrahistory, full of passion and accompanied by a virulent and transcendent advance of the days for India and for the world.
Other recommended books by Javier Moro
they want us dead
Better than silent dead. Nothing can counteract the official propaganda, that pro-government self-promotion capable of making the miserable believe that they live in the happiness of well-being. But not everyone can swallow a story. As soon as awareness of fear appears, the insurgency is the only option if one wants to be free.
In 2014, after leading protest demonstrations against the Maduro regime, the young activist Leopoldo López was faced with a difficult decision: leave Venezuela and continue fighting for the freedom of his compatriots abroad, or remain in Caracas and run the risk of a harsh prison sentence. He didn't hesitate for a moment. He went into the lion's den and became a hero. In a rigged trial, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
This is the story of how he survived, how his parents and, above all, his wife, Lilian Tintori, moved heaven and earth to get him released. With the style full of strength that has made him one of the most respected current authors, Javier Moro offers the story of lives that had to go from normality to exceptionality and that are as exciting as they are exemplary.
About 16 years ago I read Indian Passion and The Red Sari, they are fascinating!