European Realism

From charity to deceit, benevolence to violence, fear of God to extreme cruelty, the dictator of The Autumn of the Patriarch embodies the best and the worst of human nature. Gabriel García Márquez, the renowned master of magical realism, vividly portrays the dying tyrant caught in the prison of his own dictatorship. Employing an innovative, dreamlike style, and overflowing with symbolic descriptions, the novel transports the listener to a world that is at once fanciful and real.

Jean Gabin was not a star—he was a standard. Before special effects, before method performance, before celebrity explained itself, there was Jean Gabin. A man who changed cinema not by excess, but by restraint. In Jean Gabin: Silence, Dignity, and the Birth of Modern Cinema, author Julien Peltier delivers a cinematic, deeply human biography of the actor who invented the modern screen antihero—and later became the moral backbone of French film. From the fog-shrouded fatalism of Le Quai des Brumes and Le Jour se lève, to his moral authority in Touchez pas au grisbi, Le Président, and ...

"The unknown masterpiece", or "Le chef-d'œuvre inconnu", is a story by the French author Honoré de Balzac. This short text was of tremendous importance in the world of art, for it holds a groundbreaking reflection about artistic creation: what does completion or failure mean, and how is it that technique does not guarantee either. Paul Cézanne famously said "I am Frenhofer", identifying with the old master around which the story revolves. Pablo Picasso himself was absolutely fascinated by the text, so much that he had his studio moved in the Parisian street named in the story; there, he painted his own masterpiece, Guernica.

Guy de Maupassant was an absolute master of the short story genre, delighting in clever plotting, concise style, and efficient storytelling, which he used to produce stunning pieces in a very condensed format. Maupassant specialized in realism, with its sharp criticism of lower human nature and society, and fantastic, although his ventures in the supernatural are often used as an implicit symptom of the protagonists' troubled minds - he was absolutely fascinated with psychiatry, which was nascent at the time.

"The Conscript" is one of the stories from the great collection making up "The Human Comedy"; it captures the human cost of revolution in a terribly touching way. Madame de Dey is a noble, rich widow whose son, an officer in the dragoons, has chosen to follow the princes into exile. She remains behind in a precarious position to look after his fortune. She is now awaiting her son's arrival in disguise.

Shape of Desire is a spellbinding tale of love, longing, and the mysterious power of imagination. When a lonely young man dreams the perfect woman into existence, their story begins as a quiet miracle—and unfolds into a global sensation. Alora, the dream made flesh, is more than a fantasy. She becomes a muse, a celebrated singer, and an icon of beauty and grace. As her fame spreads across Europe, the two lovers must learn to navigate a world dazzled by her presence, while protecting the truth of her extraordinary origin. Their love deepens, culminating in a romantic Roman wedding and the ...

Concierto para delinquir es una divertida aventura de exiliados. La historia se inicia en París y concluye en Puerto Galeón, un pintoresco puerto del Caribe, al que van a parar, un anarquista uruguayo - de profesión grabador y pintor - y un trotamundos español - que sobrevive del oficio de cuentero - para incendiar de amor, irreverencia y poesía a los habitantes del lugar.

Concierto para Delinquir es un exquisito relato del realismo mágico que nos llevará a situaciones inusuales llenas de humor, intriga, amistad, poder y odio.

Could a Polish girl's mysterious radio change the outcome of WWII? Carrying her abducted parents’ wanted radio, Cesia flees her bombed Polish town in search of shelter. As possible allies or enemies close in, she begins to unravel mysteries about the red radio, a secrecy that could cost many lives if the device falls into the wrong hands. Yet, all her attempts to tune the device only produce a creepy static. However, somehow, as her fingers turn the dials it feels like the radio is responding. With her life in peril, one precarious question begins to burn: When the radio crackles . . . ...