The Critic

About the book

About The Critic

Elia Barceló, writer: A mystery that leads you to flip through the pages at full speed until unraveling it. Recommended reading for vacations, with plenty of free time ahead, or for readers who don't mind stealing hours from sleep. Mónica Rouanet, writer: "A tightly woven plot and unforgettable characters. A novel that shows rather than tells, making it easy to immerse yourself in the story and experience it from within." A real thriller experienced by the foremost specialist in fiction. An uncompromising film critic suspects that part of his life may have been a farce; a grand fiction. He becomes the protagonist of a story that he would have never considered believable if he had seen it reflected in a film. The time has come to discover who is who in the cast: his wife, his daughter whom he lost when she was three, his friends, those who surround him. A story that speaks of memory and how memories betray us. A novel about friendship, loyalty, or sentimental education, showcasing the contrasts between the vanities of the film and media world, alongside the most intimate insecurities of its protagonists. Juan Antonio Ruan, a film critic as prestigious as he is feared for his difficult character, rough and solitary, finds himself in Los Angeles, invited to the premiere of the latest film by Germán Almendros, the popular Spanish director. There, he receives the news that his ex-wife, Victoria Sampietro, heiress to one of the country's largest fortunes, has died. In her last wishes, Victoria has expressed the desire for him to scatter her ashes on the shores of the beach house where their shared daughter disappeared eighteen years ago. Ruan, undergoing antipsychotic treatment, begins to have reasons to doubt if his entire past is as he believed to remember it.

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