This is my latest novel and it has been awarded the XLII Felipe Trigo Prize to the Finalist Novel.
Although they are still young and enjoy a comfortable, apparently successful position, the marriage of Pau and Amanda is going through a crisis caused by monotony and the wife’s illness. From the window of their family apartment in the Ensanche of Barcelona, the husband becomes increasingly fascinated in the comings and goings of guests at the luxurious hotel across the courtyard, a dream world where they always seem to be partying.
His desire to know it firsthand leads him to experiment with the risky game of leading a double life and for a time he is torn between the sophisticated temptations of that parallel reality, where he intimates with a bright actress with a dark side who embodies everything he lacks, and the convenience, also financial, of not breaking the bond that ties him to his wife, who in turn revives, in the company of another man, feelings that seemed dormant.
The hotel, an almost magical space that suggests the unattainable, is the center of the plot of “Entre algodones,” a novel where the characters want something different but also fear losing what they have. The conflict between everyday life and fantasy, principles and the desire for freedom, the weight of routine and the temptation of adventure is served on a silver platter in the rooms and lounges of the hotel.
