Initiated in the literary world through biographical books of such unique characters as the boxers Cassius Clay or Legrá (a complete coincidence, since he admitted that he did not like boxing, but they were ordered for him by the newspaper he worked for at that time) , Precious Nativel It has already become a classic for the bedside books of half Spain.
A writer of characters, in the sense that they are the ones who lead us through the different proposed plots. An always existentialist point but a considerable variety of scenarios, from life in the postwar period to the future of a man without memory. The question is, as I say, to provide his characters with that world on which the rest of the world revolves, the common thread of each new story. And as always, here I go with my three favorite books by this writer from Madrid.
Top 3 recommended books by Nativel Preciado
The elephant sanctuary
Elephant hunting, something certainly repugnant today, is even worse in Spain since a certain king was discovered hunting in the African savannah with his usual trophies. From this image of the monarch, including an unspeakable apology, we enter this story with the necessary doses of rejection to see even more disgusting characters about to go beyond the leisure trip to travel through the circles of hell on the old continent...
A couple of Spanish billionaires, Marcos and Elisabeth Blum, decide to organize a trip to Tanzania. During a dinner they gather their powerful friends Carlos, Eduardo, Mery, Antoine and Adriana, in order to convince them to invest in some lucrative land in Africa to launder their money from shady businesses. Later, Julia Soros, a young and intriguing photographer, will join the group.
The trip, a mixture of business and pleasure, becomes hell. The characters live grotesque scenes, suffer accidents, fall ill and confront each other with real fury. The expedition is complicated to madness. Africa seems to take revenge on these frivolous, amoral and greedy guys who have come to appropriate its treasures. Only one of the protagonists, the most generous and sensitive, will be able to save herself from the curse of the elephants.
The selfish
Novel with which he was to win the Planeta Prize 2009, finally finishing second after the Frozen Peaches of Espido freire. A very special literary proposal on the fragility of memory; the particular and the general of the History of any town.
Summary: The Selfish is the novel of a lonely, powerful and influential man who loves himself too much. A mysterious incident causes him to lose his memory. After moments of panic, Baltasar Orellana relives his life, the women he has loved, the abuses he has committed and the hatred he arouses.
It is also the recreation of a time in the recent history of Spain that highlighted the fragility of power. The character the novel is inspired by disappeared, like so many others, in the early XNUMXs. One of the essential works within the production of Nativel Preciado.
The time for cherries has arrived
The arrival of the last years of maturity, those in which the consideration of third age is rapidly approaching, can be a conflictive time, especially if you are an actress who lived her best days long ago.
Summary: Carlota is an actress who belongs to a privileged generation, the one who was born in Spain in the middle of the XNUMXth century and was spared great historical tragedies, such as the civil war, the Nazi persecution, Stalin's Siberia or the Vietnam War. He only had one nightmare: the Franco dictatorship. It was all forty years ago.
On the verge of 60, divorced and mother of a daughter, the protagonist faces the most insecure and hesitant moment of her life. You are overwhelmed by the dizzying passage of time. He fears abandonment and loneliness. He is obsessed with losing his memory and contemplates his best memories as if he were the supporting actress in a movie in which real scenes of writers, filmmakers, politicians, singers, countries and historical events appear.
In full nostalgic evocation, a strange character crosses his path who teaches him to calm his judgment, hold his spirits, open the windows and contemplate the outbreak of spring. The time for cherries has arrived is a fictional plot full of real issues that Nativel Preciado knows through his own experience. The author tries to convince us that time is just an attitude, if we lose our fear of it, we will never be old.
Other books by Nativel Preciado ...
The Nobel and the showgirl
The past sometimes erupts with impetuous force and disrupts seemingly calm existences. This is what happens to Jimena and her daughter Vera when, in an old attic, they discover the letters and writings of their grandmother Margot Denís, a free woman who triumphed in Spain in the twenties of the last century and whose beauty and your work as star They allowed him to meet famous people of his time, such as Alfonso XIII himself or the scientist Albert Einstein.
The Nobel laureate spent ten days in Spain and recorded in his diary the meeting with a mysterious young lady. Jimena and Vera suspect that this woman could be Margot. Mother and daughter, guided by the writings of their ancestor, embark on an investigation that revolutionizes their lives.
The past sometimes erupts with impetuous force and disrupts seemingly calm existences. This is what happens to Jimena and her daughter Vera when, in an old attic, they discover the letters and writings of their grandmother Margot Denís, a free woman who triumphed in Spain in the twenties of the last century and whose beauty and your work as star They allowed him to meet famous people of his time, such as Alfonso XIII himself or the scientist Albert Einstein.
The Nobel laureate spent ten days in Spain and recorded in his diary the meeting with a mysterious young lady. Jimena and Vera suspect that this woman could be Margot. Mother and daughter, guided by the writings of their ancestor, embark on an investigation that revolutionizes their lives.
Nativel Preciado speaks to us in The Nobel and the showgirl of characters who lived the Belle Époque with debauchery. Years golden in which young women smoked, cut their skirts, drove sports cars, danced Charleston and dreamed of doing without male protection. Margot was one of those women, proud to feel free, although her liberation turned out to be too short-lived.
Intimate friends
The human being is eminently social. In social interaction we create bonds and simultaneously generate irreconcilable enmities and very valuable friendships. This book is a compliment to the latter, to those friends that, inexcusably, we all need to be happy.
Summary: 'No one is capable of living without friends and, even less, of accepting that they do not have them. Even the most unhappy and miserable being boasts of having them, as if friendship were the last possible redemption. ' With these words Nativel Preciado opens his book.
A moving and lucid book, written in a confessional tone, about close friends, the true ones, those with whom you commit to share your time, your confidences, your silences and, ultimately, whom you allow to participate in your intimacy.
With the hope that this work will help us to take better care of our friends, to avoid their loss and even to recover them, its author has woven a web of 'vital lies', which are a free interpretation of what has been lived, of one's own experience .
