We recently rescued the Norwegian writer Maja lunde, initiated in that youthful narrative from which to assault the more adult literature. Many other cases do the same and today it is time to point out Angela Vallvey, author endowed with an unusual versatility that leads her between different genres, including poetry.
However, in this space we are more than what concerns the novel. And in the case of Vallvey it is always better this way to avoid falling into the temptation of trying to cover such an extensive and alternating bibliography. The point is that, despite everything, the thematic framing is not easy and it is best to let ourselves be carried away by those unleashed creativity capable of offering us new scenarios.
Each novel as a new microcosm where the profiles of its characters are separated, causing us constant resets with respect to any other previous reading by this author. A literary career that, in addition to being fruitful and surprising, garners top-level recognition. Let yourself be carried away by Ángela Vallvey's stories and always discover new worlds.
Top 3 recommended novels by Angela Vallvey
The soul of the beasts
Historical fiction is juicier, from the more fictional part, when what makes us travel in time is the intrahistoric, the anecdotal that ends up transcending, even giving a sense to the time in turn. That's what happens with this amazing story ...
A bloody boy lost in the woods. A queen too young who does not accept her fate. A Sephardic who guards a mysterious book. A warrior who asks for justice. A murderer who kills like an animal ...
These are some of the characters that parade through the pages of this fascinating story, which runs between the years of Jesus Christ and the medieval kingdom of León in the time of El Cid. An exciting adventure that mixes historical and anonymous characters in dark and violent times in which, despite everything, men and women dared to travel uncertain paths and face unimaginable dangers to fulfill their destiny.
Almond cake with love
Like everything in life, the truest love exists precisely after the constancy of such antagonistic aspects as sadness, hopelessness or loneliness. From the sensation of life as a misfortune, the idea that love is the only option, not as a cliché but as a rigorous certainty, ends up awakening to get ahead.
Fiona is a young woman, orphaned by a mother, who has "problems" with food, not only because she is in charge of taking it home and supplying her sick father, but because the convenience section has been her only lifeline in the face of her premature responsibility. Fiona has imagination, but she is also realistic, which is why she is eaten up by the fear that Social Services will discover her father's disability and separate them. Junk food is his way of forgetting. He doesn't know how to cook because he doesn't know how to eat either.
But Fiona does know how to love. Or at least she tries: there is Alberto, the boy she has been in love with all her life, who has just returned to the city. The pity is that he has started dating Lylla, the intimate «best enemy» from Fiona.
Her whole life seems cut short until her school tutor, Miss Aurora, insists on inviting her to lunch and introduces her to her aunt Mirna, an old-fashioned cook, quite crazy, who teaches her that the main ingredient for cooking desserts exquisite is not sugar, but love. And about that… about that Fiona has great reservations. Along with Fuet, an abandoned dog, and her friends Max and Carmen, Fiona will discover new emotions as she embarks on a life-changing pottery adventure.
The deficiency states
I recently remembered an interview on YouTube by Andreu Buenafuente to Rafael Santandreu. The presenter's notion is the idea that self-help cannot be dictated by books read only by those who, precisely, are not capable of self-help. Trusting these placebos is a matter of each one and of the moment that we may be going through. But doubting and criticizing is always fine as a first step in helping ourselves. And if it can be through a juicy novel, then better.
The characters in The Deficiency States seek happiness in their own way, like all of us. They try not to succumb to routine, to escape mediocrity or to rebuild their lives with a little meaning. Ulysses, abandoned by his wife Penelope, lives with his son Telemachus. Penelope is a fashion designer who doesn't cut herself as much as the usual Penelope when she comes across a suitor.
Ulysses' father-in-law, Vili,'s wife makes life impossible, and he seeks happiness with optimism and some strange ideas, such as setting up a new Academy to teach a group of unhappy people that happiness consists, as Plato said, in doing things. the good Satire of self-help books, meditation on happiness, tribute to the classical world... Yes, all those things are and are in The Deficiency States.
But this novel is, above all, a hilarious fable about the weaknesses and greatness of the human condition. Ángela Vallvey has juicy and direct prose, a dazzling poetic capacity, a sense of humor that incites us to philosophical reflection without becoming sleepy, uneasy or pedantic. Perhaps this book does not allow us to know if happiness consists in doing well, or in developing our capabilities with maximum skill, but it can help us to look in the mirror with courage, with the dignity that our condition demands.
"Deficiency states" is brutal. Wonderful Vallvey.
With «The soul of the beasts» I disagree a bit, the intention is good and she is a historian and passionate about the subject, but it is one of her most cumbersome books.
I would add others, such as «Kippel and the electronic gaze» which is one of my favorite books, in fact. In general, I love Vallvey in its beginnings. He made a postmodernism in which his caustic humor shone a lot.
I'm a screenwriter and I've already said, I always keep Vallvey in mind among my readings. She how she drew characters, how she linked the references...
Thank you very much for your contribution, Javerit.