La historical fiction It is a genre capable of hosting a multitude of narrative proposals that slide into that past setting to end up rewriting History through juicy intrastories. And in that open aspect, in that enriching flow of history, the journalist moves exceptionally. Kings Monforte, one of the most solid current bestseller authors in Spain.
There have been many years of narrative development in which this author has lavished herself on different novels with her feminist touch, vindicating the role of women in history, committed to that same feminine universe. A universe so rich in its vindictive need and at the same time absolutely naturalized in a literary space where the conquest of the feminine is open to all genders and all types of characters, without stereotypes from other times.
The jump from the radio waves, in which the author had already gained a voice with personality, to the lyrics, became an impact confirmed with the good work throughout the new novels that she was presenting and the awards. that was gathering.
Top 3 recommended novels by Reyes Monforte
the red violinist
It never hurts to pay tribute to characters in history who are barely mentioned in officialdom. And of course, the tasks of spies and other actors in the shadow of diplomacy, in a period as unique as the Cold War, have their own in terms of their tasks of execution and verification as the advance guard of any Intelligence body. Let's go there with what happened to Africa de las Heras...
"But who the hell is that woman?" was the most heard question in CIA offices. Who was pulling the strings of global espionage, thwarting intelligence operations, twisting wills, shedding skin, leading impossible missions, uncovering state secrets, and drawing the threat of a Third World War on the Cold War board? That mysterious woman was the Spanish Africa de las Heras, who became the most important Soviet spy of the XNUMXth century.
Captured by Stalin's secret services in Barcelona during the Spanish civil war, she was part of the operation to assassinate Trotsky in Mexico, fought against the Nazis as a radio operator —violinist— in the Ukraine, starred in the most fruitful honey trap of the KGB when she married with the anti-communist writer Felisberto Hernández and creating the largest network of Soviet agents in South America, he left his mark on nuclear espionage, in the Bay of Pigs and was related to Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera or Ernest Hemingway, among others. A life full of danger, mystery, glamor and numerous secret identities under one alias: Homeland. Not even her personal relationship with Trotsky's assassin, Ramón Mercader, separated her from her targets, but what price did she have to pay for her loyalty to the USSR and to herself?
The memory of lavender
Death and what it means for those who still remain. Grief and the feeling that the loss destroys the future, establishing a past that takes on a look of painful melancholy, of idealization of once simple, ignored, undervalued details.
An anecdotal caress that will never return, a human warmth, a kiss…, everything begins to swell the imaginary of the idealized past. Lena was happy with Jonás. It seems easily understandable that this was the case in light of the tragic emotion with which Lena leads herself to Tármino, the town of whom she occupied a large part of her life until the fateful farewell to that disquieting forever.
The ashes of Jonah seek to dye the purplish gray of the lavenders that are spread over endless fields. Every speck of its dust that was once flesh and blood is destined to float between currents to settle among the soft fragrance of spiritual evocations.
But each life that ends has a lived story that does not always fit entirely into the multitude of perspectives of those who shared Jonah's presence. And in the absence of the last one who could testify in his defense, Jonah himself, the story is conformed into a strange mosaic of ideas that do not fit into the puzzle that Lena had composed about Jonah.
Friends, family, the past before Lena. Jonah's life suddenly seems completely out of reach for Lena. She who shared her full existence and who now feels the loss of someone who does not have to be as much as she thought she was. A novel that invites us to consider the infinity of the human soul.
Through Lena we see what Jonás was, until it is complemented by pending conflicts and secrets that for Lena seem unreal. No one is the puzzle that someone else may believe they have made.
The circumstances, the moments. We are changeable, variable and perhaps only in the shelter of love can we somehow hide all that we also are, much to our regret ...
A russian passion
The novel that most and best connects with historical aspects. And this is the transmutation into fiction of the real life of the singer with Spanish origins Carolina Codina or also Lina Prokófiev.
Starting from the portrait that seeks maximum fidelity and that reveals an intense work of documentation, this fictional bibliography delves into Europe between the wars, with the lights of the years after the Great War and the shadows that once again loomed over the old continent. with the latency of exacerbated nationalisms.
The couple formed by Lina and Serguei make a fascinating but also terrifying journey through the Europe of those days. From the dazzling lights of Paris in the 20s to the dark 30s of the Russian revolution.
And meanwhile, the particular love of the couple, with its tensions, with the lights and shadows even in their artistic performance, without a doubt a great novel that delves into very different extremely interesting worlds of those years.
Other recommended books by Reyes Monforte…
The cursed countess
Being cursed, in the good sense of the word, becomes the countercurrent concept that leads to evolution. Discovering one of those characters who stands up against customs, at least discriminatory, ends up being an adventure per se that the author is in charge of giving with greater significance if possible.
The exciting fictionalized true story of Countess Maria Tarnowska, a libertine and lively aristocrat, who refused to abide by the restrictions for women of her time, and who shook the foundations of Europe when she was accused of planning the murder of her partner. Her trial in Venice at the beginning of the XNUMXth century became the first media scandal in history.
Venice, 1910. The young translator Nicolas Naumov shoots Pavel Kamarovsky, a count engaged to the woman he loves. When the count dies, the police accuse his lover, Countess Maria Tarnowska, of instigating the crime of passion. The most scandalous trial of the time begins, which shook the foundations of the right-thinking society. In parallel, we will learn about the fascinating life of Maria, a femme fatale who had multiple lovers, defied the strictest taboos, refused to accept the servile role reserved for women and never renounced her freedom or had qualms about manipulating men to achieve your goals.
Arena Besos
Laia wants you to believe that she is absolutely free, with that hope only tormented by dreams that rescue dark memories of old jaimas deployed in the Moroccan desert. Her original family makes up a large part of those dreams in which she is just a girl whose future focuses on the submission and need of others over her person.
But as always happens with a past of outstanding debts, he persists in reaching out to Laia until he gets her brother Ahmed to return her to what was her previous life as a haratín. But beyond the persistent will of the past, the novel also opens like déjá vù to events from other times.
If Julio, Laia's boyfriend is impelled to go in search of his beloved, Carlos, his father evokes the loss of what was also his love among the desert dunes.
And between these two love stories at two times we find ourselves in the singular space of socio-political relations between Spain and Morocco, with a masterful introduction to the customs and beliefs of the inhabitants of a desert that never had an owner.
