Cerbantes Park
After his meteoric—if unscrupulous—professional ascent as an exhibition curator, the Commissioner, who is equal parts cynical and naïve, returns to the neighborhood where he grew up to build what he hopes will be his magnum opus: a literary theme park.
There, between ambitious business plans, avant-garde attractions, and the censure of neighbors, he will once again have to face the specters of his youth, including issues of class and emotional honesty, as well as the new challenges of adulthood: his ability to tolerate his dream’s imperfect realization will depend on the success of his Quixotic undertaking—in a very different sense of the word «Quixotic.»
«The problem with Spain, if not the world, is that we haven’t read Don Quixote very closely. There has yet to be a revolution in reading comprehension. Cervantes’ masterpiece isn’t about a poor old man that everybody’s laughing at. It’s not about a failure, or about a romantic hero. Instead, the novel waxes poetic about Alonso Quijano’s success. It’s a book about an old dude who decides to make his dream come true and, against all odds, he achieves it… If life coaches read Don Quixote, they’d keep it on their nightstands.»
PRESS
«A very successful book about some sociological, let alone ideological, lies.And above above all, an ironic, almost “cerbantine” reading of the demoralising cultural and social reality of our time.» Ernesto Ayala-Dip, La Vanguardia
«An intelligent book that deals with the metaliterary with lucidity.» Juan Ángel Juristo, Cultura|s
«It is this mixture of social novel and cultured witticism, almost decanting Juan Marsé into Eduardo Mendoza, that gives Robles Lucena’s novel its particular grace.» Alberto Olmos, El Confidencial