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LIFE IN FUERTEVENTURA
Books set in Fuerteventura
Apr
The singer Carlos Cano said in one of his songs: April to live, April to sing … This month is also the month of literature since April 23 was established as “World Book Day”.
There is a belief that Miguel de Cervantes and Willian Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. However, neither of us left us on such a day. Cervantes died on April 22, while Shakespeare died, according to our calendar, on May 3 (The English, at that time, were guided by the Julian calendar, that’s why there is a time lag). The one who did die on April 23, 1616, was Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, another great author.
But what difference does it make! The 23rd is as good a day as another to celebrate reading.
Books set in Fuerteventura
A multitude of writers have come to Fuerteventura, some did so voluntarily and others, like Unamuno, forced by the State. Everyone has been inspired and seduced by our island.
Today we leave you some titles so you can discover a different Fuerteventura.
If you know more books worth mentioning, let us know by sending an email to blog@fuerteventuractiva.es, or writing a comment below this article.
From Fuerteventura to Paris (1925) – Author: Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno arrived in Fuerteventura in February 1924, exiled due to his confrontation with the Primo de Rivera regime. This circumstance did not prevent the playwright from integrating perfectly into the Majorera culture, and a became a very loved person.
He traveled a large part of the island falling in love with every corner and its people. The scarce 4 months that she spent filled her soul with sensations. Although we only name one of his titles, Unamuno mentioned Fuerteventura in hundreds of articles and several books. In both prose and verse, he refers to the sea, the aridity, the nakedness and the lack of water that the island suffers. Also to its flora, fauna and the towns of Fuerteventura.
Isla de Lobos (1926) and Maloficio (1928) – Author: José Rial.
Isla de Lobos and Maloficio, are two books by José Rial, who worked as a lighthouse keeper on Isla de Lobos from 1913 to 1916.
Isla de Lobos, is inspired by the experiences of Rial in the small islet, marked by his disagreement with the fishermen of Corralejo.
Maloficio. Here, José Rial, collects in three small novels, stories related to Fuerteventura and its people. He is very critical of the poverty of the Majoreros, their submission to the landowners and authorities, and highlights the influence of certain traditions and superstitions.
The two books are small ethnographic treatises on the island. We usually go to them to find out how the Carnivals, Christmas, and the Parida Wakes, among other cultural manifestations, were celebrated in the early twentieth century in Fuerteventura.
Fuerteventura (1987) – Author: Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa
If there is an iconic novel that puts our island in the spotlight, it is precisely Fuerteventura by Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa.
This “best seller” is a fast-paced story that takes place during the Second World War. The author creates a quite credible and attractive espionage fiction. He puts us in contact with the enigmas, mysteries and legends that constantly hover over the Winter house. Among them, this town was a resting place for Nazi Germans and the crew of the submarines that, supposedly, anchored in Cofete.
Spasski’s dilemma. (2010) – Author: Juan Carlos Domínguez
If you liked “The Name of the Rose”, then you should not stop reading this exciting novel full of mystery written by Juan Carlos Domínguez, an expert in Historical Heritage.
In this debut, Domínguez introduces us to the journalist Paco Miguel Ramos, who is dragging his own failures, and tries to explain the mysterious death of a teacher during archaeological excavations at the San Buenaventura Convent in Betancuria. A game of chess will put him in the position of choosing and understanding that, sometimes, the worst alternative is not to choose.
The content of silence (2014) – Author: Lucía Etxebarria
Lucía Etxebarria is inspired on this occasion, by a true story that occurred in the 70s, in La Gomera. There the sect founded by Otto Muehl was established, who bought a great extension of land to father Aryan children.
With these elements, the writer creates the fiction of “The content of silence.” A girl disappears in what appears to be a ritual suicide. Her brother begins a journey through Tenerife and Fuerteventura following her trail, the reasons for her escape and the connections of a sect with the Nazi refugees in the Canary Islands after the Second World War.
El Dios que nada traspasa (2014) – Author: María Gema Marín
Psychological thriller set in Rome and Fuerteventura. Based on a true story.
A year after the disappearance of a young woman in Fuerteventura, the authorities watch with dismay the decline in Scandinavian tourism. Without evidence with which to incriminate the main suspect, they ask for international collaboration, since at the local level the case has been archived.
A young woman sets a plan in motion with the help of a former psychiatrist and former CIA collaborator. To get to the killer, she will have to learn how the criminal’s mind works.
The lethargy (2015) – Author: Luis Rivero
The author of Gran Canaria sets The Lethargy in rural Fuerteventura of the 70s, reflecting the insular universe of that time. Despite being fiction, the novel is based on the author’s experiences, which are intermingled with the oral memory of the elderly, and the ancient traditions of the island. In the story there are rituals of healing, magic, customs, sex and heartbreak.
The Hermit (2015) and The Disappeared (2018) – Author: Thomas Rydahl.
The Hermit. It was the first novel by the Danish writer to be translated into Spanish.
On one of the beaches of Fuerteventura, the lifeless body of a baby appears in the trunk of a car. There are no remains of the driver, there are no tracks, there is no complaint, there is no case. The police want to close the investigation to avoid another scandal like Madeleine’s.
This is where Erhard, known as “The Hermit”, comes into action, who wants to get to the bottom of the matter. This peculiar character will captivate you: he is very observant and with a hidden past. This septuagenarian has nine fingers, has been a taxi driver in Fuerteventura for almost twenty years, is a piano tuner in his spare time, a jazz freak, and a bit of a drinker …
In The Disappeared, Erhard (The Hermit) continues to live quietly in Fuerteventura. He’s been a while, and he can’t drive his cab, nor play the piano. His detective skills are more aimed at finding stolen motorcycles and lost dogs. But his peaceful life is altered by the recording of a television program: The Disappeared.
A Prison in the Sun (2019), the Ghost of Villa Winter (2020), Clarissa’s Warning (2021) – Author: Isobel Blackthorn
These three novels, written by Isobel Blackthorn, take us, through psychological thrillers, into a Fuerteventura full of mysteries, which have houses with dark pasts in common.
In Clarissa’s Warning a supermarket cashier who wins the lottery, she comes to live in Fuerteventura. Her new home, known to the locals as Casa Baraso, is shrouded in superstition and strange phenomena.
In A Prison in the Sun>, Isobel Blackthorn brings us closer to a heartbreaking story in the Tefía Agricultural Penitentiary Colony. It all starts when Trevor Moore rents a country house in Fuerteventura, finds a backpack full of money and tries to find out who it belongs to.
The ghost of Villa Winter It is halfway between crime novels and psychic novels. Its main character is the occultist Clarissa Wilkinson, who reminds us a bit of the popular Jessica Fletcher.
This is a gripping read, full of intrigue, with many twists and turns that will appeal to those who love the mysteries of the Villa Winter.
I will never forget your goodbye (2020) – Author: José Esteban San Juan Hernández
El palmero, Spanish Language teacher at IES Corralejo, delights us with a psychological thriller, set in the town of Corralejo during confinement, produced by the COVID-19 pandemic. It tells the story of Eduardo, an English teacher who lives in a building and, after talking with his neighbor, suspects that a crime has occurred in the pension opposite.
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