Hernán Díaz, Clara Sánchez, Sergio del Molino, Cristina Fernández Cubas, Ana Penyas, Manuel Jabois, Laura Fernández, Ignacio Martínez de Pisón, Eduard Escoffet, Berta García Faet and Alex de la Iglesia, among others, will star this Friday, April 19 , a new edition of the Night of Books, the literary highlight in the Community of Madrid on the occasion of the commemoration, every April 23, of Book Day.
There will be more than 530 free activities in 99 municipalities of the region in which readers can participate and which will bring together more than 300 authors, 139 institutions and cultural spaces, 127 bookstores and 116 libraries with the house as the thematic axis.
‘A house forever’ is the “especially suggestive” motto of this 19th edition, as highlighted by the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sports of the Community of Madrid, Mariano de Paco, during the presentation of this literary event, held last 1 April in the capital.
The Real Casa de Correos, headquarters of the Government of the Community, will once again be the heart of this festival, which will be inaugurated at 6:00 p.m. by authors Manuel Jabois, Ignacio Martínez de Pisón and Clara Sánchez, which they will debate, with the journalist as well. and writer Marta Fernández as moderator, on ‘The territories of memory: remembering by writing’.
After the opening ceremony, the Real Casa de Correos will bring together Cristina Fernández Cubas, Laura Fernández and Ana Penyas, who will tour the ‘Rooms, doors and houses: the places of literature’, guided by the cultural journalist Jesús Marchamalo.
Subsequently, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize Hernán Díaz will break down the links between fiction and reality together with the recent winner of the Alfaguara Prize, Sergio del Molino.
The end of the party will be led by the composer and singer Sheila Blanco, who will put voice and music to the verses of some of the most important poets of the Generation of 27. A musical poetic recital in which the singer brings back the creations of authors such as Josefina Romo Arregui, Concha Méndez, Elisabeth Mulder, Margarita Ferreras, Dolores Catarinéu, Carmen Conde, Ernestina de Champourcín or, although she does not belong to this generation, Rosalía de Castro, as Blanco explained during the presentation, in which she provided attendees with an appetizer of what will be shared on the night of Friday the 19th.
For children, at the Real Casa de Postas Chiquitectos will organize the ‘Inflatable House’ workshop, inspired by ‘James and the Giant Peach’, by Roald Dahl; while the youth will be able to attend the live episode of the Radio Primavera Sound podcast ‘Punzadas sonido’, directed by Inés García and Paula Ducay, with the author Blanca Lacasa as a special guest.
Finally, the Valencian writer Alice Kellen and the journalist Marta Robles will talk about the house in ‘Passions begin at home’. Eduard Escoffet will offer the recital ‘The voice between soil and heaven’ in the Plaza del Conde de Barajas, a comprehensive sample of his work in sound poetry.
In that same space, you can also enjoy the poetic-musical show ‘Making heart guts and heart guts’, by the micro poet Ajo and the musician Nacho Mastretta on piano and clarinet.
The tradition of literary routes continues with the Route through re-enchanted Madrid, a ‘noir’ walk with the writer and editor Servando Rocha, based on the idea of ??enchantment, both of houses that still exist and those that are no longer there but that, in some way, they are still “there”.
This edition will once again feature the now classic ‘Hunting for Books’ tournament on the Cuesta de Moyano. This year the poet Berta Garcia Faet and the filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia will guide the bibliographic treasure hunt, who will leave their selection carefully marked in each booth.
A little later, at the National Library, the protagonists will be Libraries, bookstores and shelves: the home of books, which Emilio Pascual and Marina Sanmartín will talk about, with the introduction and moderation of the journalist Susana Santaolalla.
At the Casa de América, with the collaboration of the Argentine Embassy in Spain, Mariángeles Fernández and Diego Sabanés will participate ‘Cortázar at home: the domestic as a threatening territory’.
In La Casa Encendida, the writer Mercedes Cebrián and the photographer Lisbeth Salas will talk about the spaces inhabited by artists and creators in ‘I’m still here, I never left: pilgrimages through house-museums of artists and writers’.
Nearby, the Ateneo de Madrid will open its double program with Carlos D. Lechuga, author of the book ‘This is your house, Fidel’, who will explore his memory on Sundays in the independent house of his grandfather, leader of the Cuban revolution , in ‘Intimacy in a guarded house’, and will continue with the writer and Cultural delegate of the Madrid City Council, Marta Rivera de la Cruz, who will talk with the journalist Jesús García Calero about ‘A house of passage: the hotel’.
The Prado Museum joins the literary event with ‘Sounds in the Palace of Painting’, with a concert of court music for harpsichord: suites by Michel Corrette (1707-1795), which will take place in its library, under the vault painted by Luca Giordano.
For its part, the Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum will host the family workshop ‘Pop-up Homes’ led by paper engineer Julia Yus. In addition, the National Archaeological Museum will be the place where Pepe Pérez-Muelas and Andrés Fernández Rubio will talk about travel and travelers in ‘Homo Viator, a trip of travel’.
Finally, the Goethe-Institut Madrid celebrates the hundredth anniversary of the death of the writer Franz Kafka on April 18, 19 and 20 through exhibitions, talks and children’s activities by writers, translators and illustrators.
Workshops, readings, storytelling, puppets, theater, concerts and presentations such as the shadow theater ‘La luz del corazón’ at the Lápiz y Papel Bookstore in Aranjuez; the Poesía de Ensueño group performance at Notting Hill Bookshop in Alcalá de Henares; the meeting with Fermin Bocos at the Arroyomolinos Municipal Library; the Book Fair of the Pozuelo de Alarcón Library network; the workshop ‘My castle is happy because it has a lot of glass’ inside the Museum of Glass Art in Alcorcón or the conversation between Remedios Zafra and Mario Obrero at the Mercado Space in Getafe, are some examples of the activities that will be held in 99 municipalities of the Community of Madrid.
