BCNegra flirts with the dark side

• Culture When the writer deciphers the map of his second novel

• Literature A game of mirrors to reinvent crime fiction

Literature, as a notary that attests to human creation, has always been fascinated by unfolding.

There are protagonists who are nothing more than the 'alter ego' of a writer and the perfect excuse to pour out resentment, experiences or criticism, good and bad, by pretending that they are someone else.

But the '

like that of a hitman who is a good father, a rapist who is also a teacher or trainer for minors, a journalist who reports before anyone else about the bombs that he himself places and attributes to others, or a gray official who also becomes a serial killer.

The bait is in that ability to surprise the reader.

It is not a question here of fulfilling

's prediction that "everything that a man can imagine, others will do" since it always happens the other way around and crime and crime literature drinks directly from the chronicle of events.

There are also cases of double lives, much less attractive, which show the wide range of grays between good and evil.

An inexhaustible source of human stories that could not go unnoticed at one of the most important literary festivals of this genre

This edition is special since the festival turns 18 and does so with the theme of 'double life'.

The organizers invite you to "explore and exhaust all the possibilities of the double, the unfolding of personalities and lives, be it a spy, murderer, adulterer, mentally ill, dreamer or famous person behind a mask."

including round tables, presentations, live intrigue games, film screenings, literary tours, concerts and thematic exhibitions.

More than a hundred authors such as

among many others.

The Canarian writer

was also supposed to attend but he died this week at the age of 51.

One of the round tables in last year's edition

Contrary to other years, the announcement of the

award will be made on the first day of the festival, although the official ceremony will be at Barcelona City Hall on February 9.

In previous editions,

who will present the award in this edition, were awarded.

italian connection

As usual, BCNegra recovers "a book, an author and a character".

Taking into account the central axis of the festival this year, the work is

by

a paradigm of double identity and the starting point of this type of literary fiction.

The recovered protagonist is the comic book detective

, created by

in 2000, a cat who investigates in a United States after World War II in which all the characters are zoomorphic people.

However, one of the highlights will be the tribute to the Italian author

, a benchmark of Sicilian culture and the fight against political corruption and mafia violence.

The Tusquets publishing house reissues two of his works

and

by the Red Brigades

in 1978. Sciascia participated in the parliamentary commission that investigated the crime and wrote the work from the letters written by the politician.

To talk about the author, his nephew Vito Catalano will come

Sciascia is one of the great influences of the Italian writer

also a Sicilian and one of the festival's most beloved authors, when the last volume of the

was published in Spain a few months ago .

On the fourth anniversary of his death, the festival prepares a round table in which two of his disciples will participate, whom they present as "doubles of the literary father of Montalbano."

One is

the one in charge of transcribing the books that Camilleri dictated to her when her vision problems made it impossible for her to write.

Presentation of this year's editionPEP HERRERO

The other is

, an outstanding student of Camilleri, whose character, underboss

, is a literary and television phenomenon in Italy.

It presents the latest novel of the character,

(Salamandra publishing house), an intrigue that starts with a homicide in the Saint-Vincent casino that leads the protagonist to enter the world of gambling and revenge, while having to deal with a danger that comes from his past.

The Italian presence at the festival is completed with a round table on the double identities between authors who combine their professional activity with writing crime novels.

One of them is

, filmmaker and author of numerous works that have become bestsellers such as '

and

.

Being a filmmaker, Carrisi has taken some of his books to the movies.

This is the case of the novel that he presents, '

Duomo Ediciones), in which the talented inspector

During a heat wave, he investigates the appearance of a woman who had been kidnapped as a child.

Carrisi took this book to the cinema in a movie starring

, in the role of Genko and

.

The round table will be completed with another Italian author,

who in addition to being a writer is a professor and presents '

(The crimes of Piedmont series 1)', and

, a Barcelona judge as well as a writer who will talk about her latest play

that narrates a case of domestic violence, inspired by their day-to-day life in court, with two lawyers as protagonists.

Moreno will also act as a judge in a simulation of a trial after the Mossos d'Esquadra of the scientific police narrate how they investigate after a crime.

Double parallel activity

This 'theatrical trial' is one of the parallel activities along with the live conference of Mossos agents explaining their way of investigating.

In addition, monologues will be represented, literary tours, concerts, such as one by

conferences, exhibitions on the world of detectives or games to guess the culprit at the Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya and in some libraries.

There will also be film projections, such as

with a script by

who also presents the work '

(Tusquets editores), the latest adventure of his Cuban detective

In addition, 'Cadaveri eccellenti' will be screened based on the novel by Leonardo Sciascia.

A Mosso explains the function of the scientific police

The festival also addresses other round tables in which duality will be more present, such as the political controversy of 'either with me or against me' so recognizable in Catalonia in recent years, with the participation of

who narrates it in his latest work

Also in the experience of detectives when they start and who often have to reconcile solving cases with other less vocational tasks, although everything counts, as

(Asteroid Books) reminds us, the second novel by journalist

that He also attends one of the talks.

Other novelties that can be seen at BCNegra are

(The reversed editorial) by

an intrigue set in the Barcelona of the First World War or '

(Tusquets editores), the latest book on the cases of commissioner Jaritos de

who also participates in a round table on the duality that appears when we face a difficult reality in which our peers push us to the limit.

Ginés Sánchez

will present

(Tusquets editores) and will participate in a talk with another author from the same publishing house,

.

Other authors can also be seen, such as

who presents

' (Ediciones Siruela), the second part of '

and a mystery set in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, as well as

, daughter of the writer

who in 'Good Times' Ediciones Siruela), shows us an intimate novel with a great depth of characters.

She also publishes with Siruela

, winner of the III Prize

's black novel with the work '

that talks about an ex-policeman from Gibraltar and his fight against drug trafficking.

the mirror in the mirror

In a literary festival, one of the most recognized doubles in children's literature such as

and the impossible reflection of a magic mirror that only shows consciousness could not be missing.

In a round table, which bears the title of this character, they will present their new works R

) and

, (

, both from Pagès Editors, in which investigations are addressed in sites that are not what they seem at first or people who appear more than they are.

There are stories that are not for children.

Activity that was held in the old Modelo prison in a past edition

In its coming-of-age edition, BCNegra consolidates itself as a benchmark on the European literary scene in one of the genres that most attracts the public.

Its wide range of talks, round tables and book presentations is completed with films, literary routes through places that have been the scene of the city's criminal chronicle, or games of intellect and mystery.

There will also be meetings with the authors in reading clubs in the Libraries of Barcelona or having an aperitif in a more relaxed way.

There is a literary fascination for double lives, for pretending what we are not and for wanting to know the secrets of those around us.

since books are still stories that we have all wanted to star in.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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