In many cases the figure transcends and surpasses the real person. There are cases, even in which the person is able to rewrite their own history (I am not talking about inventing a degree, something too common, it is more about knowing how to erase tracks, replacing them with new ones).
Alejandro Casabona is an exemplary nonagenarian, one of those who seems to carry the History of Spain on his shoulders, told to anyone who wants to hear it from his mouth, with the wisdom and mettle of the one who survived everything with integrity and principles.
Once the distinguished philanthropist Don Alejandro Casabona, Víctor Balmoral, is hired to investigate what is true and what legend makes up the character, in a somewhat violent way. And Víctor begins to dive into Casabona's past.
The lives of certain people seem like authentic puzzles with missing pieces, without which time lived seems to peek into an abyss of uncertainties covered by the protagonists. What was Casabona has a lot to do with the social reality in which he lived. His hidden legacy can transform the reality of a world with shaky foundations.
Official synopsis: Alejandro Casabona has been everything in Spanish public life: great businessman, patron and political figure (first in the anti-Franco struggle, then as a parliamentary leader during the Transition). Still active and influential at almost ninety years old, Casabona died unexpectedly, under unclear circumstances, during a gala dinner at the Royal Palace in Madrid, before the astonished gaze of the kings and his young third wife.
In his will, he leaves a substantial legacy to an institute dedicated to promoting business ethics. But, before accepting it, the director of the institute instructs the researcher Víctor Balmoral to investigate to what extent Casabona had an ethical behavior throughout his career.
Was Casabona an exemplary man or an unscrupulous businessman? Did you serve politics or did you serve politics? What role did you play in the death of your wife? These are the questions of an investigation in which Balmoral will be much more involved than he thought. Vila-Sanjuán opens with this novel a series starring a journalist who becomes a researcher thanks to his knowledge of the intricacies of the history of the city.
You can now buy the novel The Casabona report, the new book of Sergio Vila-Sanjuan, here: