Top 5 Books 2008

Praised by critics and readers alike, Garriga Vela, adopted son of Málaga (or was it the other way around?), has reached a climax with his latest novel Pacífico. With the charactaristic sensibility of his narrative and using simple details from everyday life, the author takes us to the depths of what it is to be human. But remember, nothing is ever simple. “My sadness was just an act, a way of getting attention, an unavoidable condition for being a writer”. anagrama-ed.es.

A legendary Hollywood scriptwriter, but above all, a spectacular writer. On Hemingway’s insistence that he stop selling his soul to the film industry, he wrote engaging masterpieces such as White Hunter, Black Heart, finally reedited by Bernice in 2008. A story based on the wilder facets of John Huston’s explosive personality, Eastwood brought it to the big screen in the film adaptation of the same name. editorialberenice.com.

“Edgar Allan Poe believed that all stories should start at the end. O. Henry took this doctrine to the extreme with his trick stories in which there is always a surprise lying in wait in the final sentence”, said Jorge Luis Borges. North American reality through the eyes of William Sidney Porter (aka O. Henry) told as short cinematographic sketches using words tainted with humour and irony. That is definitely not a description of these stories. barataria-ediciones.com.

Using fear as the focal point, this novel is a reflection of what is happening in the world today. Fear in the West is no longer used as a fable to protect our children, but has morphed into the greatest enemy of humans everywhere. A catalogue of hidden anxiety come to light in the pages of this revealing narrative. seix-barral.es.

This must-read book has been reedited as a special edition by the Malaga Cajamar Foundation to celebrate the death of the poet. Magnificently illustrated by Idígoras and Pachi, cartoonists borrowed from El Mundo, this novel by Juan Ramón Jiménez has been brought down from the bookshelf and spruced up for children and adults alike. “I have never writen and will never write for children. I believe children can read the same books read by men”. fundacionmalaga.com.