A good novel must have a powerful story as a starting point. From there, the plot and the characters, shaped by the author, will do the rest to capture the reader's attention. Giuliano da Empoli's novel, The Wizard of the Kremlin, starts with its own story that is so real that it seems pure fantasy. A trusted advisor to Vladimir Putin - based on a real-life character - is the protagonist of a book that moves at a furious pace and delves into the intricacies of ruthless power. How an enlightened and cultured man can put himself at the service of Putin, who uses power with a blend of chaos and ruthless decisions that confounds Western countries.
Giuliano da Empoli is a sociologist, essayist and political consultant of Italian-Swiss origin. Director of the think tank Volta in Milan, he also teaches at Sciences Po Paris. The Wizard of the Kremlin, his first novel, is the literary phenomenon of the year in France and has won the French Academy’s Grand Prix de Novel and the Honoré de Balzac prize, as well as being a finalist for the Goncourt and Interallié prizes.
Da Empoli will be in conversation with Eva Orúe, journalist, writer, cultural manager and director of the Madrid Book Fair.
The event will be presented by Jean-Michel Casa, French Ambassador to Spain.
After the event, the author will sign his book at the book stall at the main entrance of IE University.
Event with simultaneous translation from French to Spanish and vice versa
The award-winning French writer and film and television director Philippe Claudel is the author of 16 novels, translated into at least 11 languages. His most recent book, which has already sold 200 thousand copies around the world, is La petite fille de Monsieur Lihn (2020), the story of a man who, fleeing war, arrives on the French coast with his granddaughter in his arms: he does not know where he is and has no knowledge of the language. Claudel talks to Gabriel Hörner about his writing and his cinematographic vision.
The fiction writer, dramatist and journalist Sabina Berman has, for some time, been an important presence on the Mexican cultural scene, having created plays that have become milestones for our time. These include Entre Pancho Villa y una mujer desnuda and Feliz nuevo siglo, doktor Freud. She has also won prizes, including the Frankfurt International Book Fair award for her novel La mujer que buceó dentro del corazón del mundo, translated into numerous languages. This time she presents her most recent novel, HDP, in which a businessman by the name of Hugo David Prado, who lives in the upper reaches of wealth and power, decides to use a global pandemic for his personal benefit. In conversation with the journalist Gabriela Warkentin.
Yuri Andrukhovych is one of the most singular figures in European narrative in recent years. Novelist, poet, essayist and translator, in his new book Small Encyclopedia of Intimate Cities, he uses his unique flair for uncovering the different among the obvious as he maps life in 39 cities, all scenes of historical events. Andrey Kurkov, recently awarded the Médicis Étranger prize in France, began a diary when the first Russian rockets fell on Kiev on 24 February 2022. In Diary of an Invasion, he recounts the horrifying impact of the conflict through a personal chronicle, which is also an astonishing account of Ukrainian identity and the daily lives of his compatriots. Both will discuss their latest books and the current circumstances with María Sahuquillo, El País correspondent in Brussels.
After the event, the authors will sign copies of their books at the book stall at the main entrance of IE University.
Event in English with simultaneous translation into Spanish.
Alice Kellen is read by millions of young people all over the world, but she keeps her life private in a way that almost no one else does. Her works, according to her readers, radiate a serene, fresh and profound romanticism that has captivated so many people that it still surprises even herself. Love is capable of transforming people for the better. The events at which she signs books generate queues of dozens of mostly young people.
In Where Everything Shines, her latest work and her latest success, two characters, as close as they are distant in their characters, try to find their reason for being through very different paths; the key is to find out if they are going to meet again.
Born in Valencia in 1989, she is a woman who enjoys the small pleasures of her family, and her cats, while having written novels such as The Archipelago Theory, The Map of Longing, You and I, Invincible, Sophie's Wings, Us On The Moon and the duology Let It Be: All That We Never Were and All That We Are Together.
Alice Kellen will be in conversation with Ana Gavín, Director of Editorial Relations at Grupo Planeta.
The author will sign books in the foyer of the theatre after the event.
Event in Spanish
Although just a few years ago it would have seemed impossible, there now exists a considerable consensus around the idea that Western democracies are in serious danger, faced with the rise of authoritarianism, nationalism, autocracy and the extreme right. The writer and historian Anne Applebaum (United States), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for Gulag (2004), presents her most recent book, which tackles these and other themes: Twilight of Democracy. The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism (2020). Applebaum argues that through poisonous, simplistic and seductive messages, authoritarianism uses the media, the social media, political polarization and conspiracy theories to set up a worrying attack on democratic values, values that are defended in her book. She will talk to the jurist and academic Ana Laura Magaloni.
Marisa Manchado is a renowned composer and pianist, as well as a teacher, and researcher, she has also been an important voice on topics such as women in music. She has held top positions in cultural management, such as the Deputy General of Music and Dance at the INAEM - Ministry of Culture. Manchado is a figure who embraces all the themes of music, women, feminism and even technology, as one of the most striking aspects about her is her interest in the synthesis of music and electronics. She now faces an exciting, perhaps daunting, challenge: in September she will begin rehearsals for her opera La Regenta, based on the novel of the same name by Leopoldo Alas Clarín and with a libretto by Amelia Valcárcel. It will premiere in October, in a joint production by the Teatro Real and the Teatro Español.
Manchado will talk about her work and career with Charo Izquierdo. Journalist, independent advisor and business consultant, she is editorial advisor to El Español, for its women's section, MagasIn, and its sustainability section, Enclave ODS. She has published the books Puta no soy, Socorro, soy abuela, ¿Soy yo o es que aquí hace mucho calor? (written together with Laura Ruiz de Galarreta) and Fashion ® Evolution.
Event in Spanish
The Queretaro publishing house, Gris Tormenta, presents a beautiful collection of texts in which different authors from different countries reflect on something that is necessary to us in order to be fully human: silence, something that is becoming ever rarer in our world. The writer, theologian, priest, practitioner of Zen meditation, and founder of the Amigos del Desierto association, Pablo d’Ors (Spain), and the publisher and writer Mónica Nepote (Mexico), talk to the book’s editor, José Manuel Velasco.
On the 25th of July this year, the city of Santiago de Queretaro will celebrate its 490th anniversary: almost five centuries of history involving indigenous peoples, colonialism, the city’s crucial role in Mexican independence, and contemporary culture. For these reasons, Queretaro has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1995. However, there are a series of myths and legends regarding the prehispanic origins of the city, who were its first peoples who came in contact with the Spaniards and how its founding took place. Fiorella Fenoglio, a research archaeologist at the INAH Queretaro Centre, a heritage expert and a tireless promoter of cultural patrimony, will present a lecture on Queretaro’s material culture, in this very special year.
Event for university students
When the first Russian rockets fell on Kyiv on February 24 2022, novelist, essayist and writer Andrey Kurkov started keeping a diary. His entries – providing a first-hand account of what it’s like to live through an active conflict – were published in the book Diary of an Invasion. Kurkov’s writing chronicles the terrible impact of the conflict through his personal experiences, giving an intimate look at Ukrainian identity and the day-to-day lives of his fellow citizens. He and Jonathan Franzen – author of six novels including The Corrections, and five works of nonfiction – discuss their work, the role of literature during war, and the responsibility of the artist in times of conflict. Chaired by the Guardian’s chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins.
Closed captions are available for this event in English and Spanish. Click on the "cc" icon in the video frame to select.
Although just a few years ago it would have seemed impossible, there now exists a considerable consensus around the idea that Western democracies are in serious danger, faced with the rise of authoritarianism, nationalism, autocracy and the extreme right. The writer and historian Anne Applebaum (United States), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for Gulag (2004), presents her most recent book, which tackles these and other themes: Twilight of Democracy. The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism (2020). Applebaum argues that through poisonous, simplistic and seductive messages, authoritarianism uses the media, the social media, political polarization and conspiracy theories to set up a worrying attack on democratic values, values that are defended in her book. She will talk to the jurist and academic Ana Laura Magaloni.
One in four plant species is threatened with extinction, mostly due to the destruction of ecosystems and climate change. In situ conservation of genetic plant resources, then, is crucial if we are to safeguard the planet's currently high levels of biodiversity, and to retain the species or genes needed by scientists and conservationists for crop improvement and ecological restoration.
Vicente Todolí and Lorenzo de' Medici, both saviours of species that might have become extinct, talk about their shared passion.
Vicente Todolí is one of the world’s foremost contemporary art curators, as attested by his career as director of museums such as IVAM in Valencia, the Tate Modern in London, and currently the Pirelli Hangarbiccoca in Milan, counted among the most prestigious art centres in Europe. His Todolí Citrus Foundation, a pivotal project for citrus fruit conservation, cultivates and protects 400 species that are in danger of extinction in an orchard that takes up the image of Palmera, Valencia and projects it to the world.
Prince Lorenzo de' Medici is a direct descendant of the Medici family, one of the most prominent historical families, under whose patronage the greatest works of Renaissance art were created, and whose art and conservationism turned the city of Florence into a cradle of world culture. Lorenzo de' Medici was born in Milan, Italy, and spent his childhood in Switzerland. Having lived in the United States as well as several European countries, he currently resides in Portugal. He is heir to Lorenzo the Magnificent, the great Medici who, among other notable achievements, has gone down in history for owning a world-famous collection of citrus fruits in Florence.
Sofía Barroso holds a degree in Art History and has organised cultural travel and art events since 1984. She has run the ARCO collectors' programme since its inception, was a member of the board of directors of the Friends of ARCO (2000-2006) and is currently on the board of trustees of the Jakober Foundation and the Zuloaga Foundation.
Can books about past wars prepare for future wars? Conversation about the similarities and differences between the war in the Balkans and Russia's war against Ukraine. About this in a conversation between Bosnian writer Ozren Kebo and Ukrainian writer and translator from Bosnian Kateryna Kalytko.
“It's been written that the past is a foreign country. Nonsense. The past is my home country. The future is a foreign country, full of strange faces, I won't set foot there,” says the narrator of Time Shelter, the 2023 International Booker Prize winning novel by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov (he will join remotely). Hopelessness about the future feeds the beasts of the past. The violent consequences of this turn are all too obvious: Russia is waging “a war not only for territory, but also for time,” as Gospodinov has put it, seeking to drag Ukraine and Ukrainians into a warped vision of the past.
But it is precisely Ukrainians’ commitment to and hope in the future that sustains them in their fight, bolstered by the memory of generations past. Can memory serve as an antidote to invented histories, thereby “holding the past at bay”? How can the stories we tell and read shape our understanding? Georgi Gospodinov, writer and translator Ostap Slyvynsky, and literary scholar and translator Uilleam Blacker speak with historian Katherine Younger about our stories and dreams of the past and memory's role in shaping the future.
Closed captions are available for this event in English and Spanish. Click on the "cc" icon in the video frame to select.
How do we define when a war is won? Is it simply victory on the battlefield? A return of territory and lives saved? Or does victory also include the more intangible, such as the protection of our humanity and trust in the world, and the ability to still feel happiness and love in the aftermath of tragedy and trauma?
Philosopher, writer and translator Vakhtang Kebuladze, journalists Slavenka Drakulich (she will join remotely) and Anne Applebaum (she will join remotely), and Maksym Yakovliev look at what happens after war is over. They talk to the journalist and essayist Tetiana Oharkova about how we should communicate with people who have survived war, whether it’s possible to feel happiness after trauma, and whether wars represent new beginnings.
Closed captions are available for this event in English and Spanish. Click on the "cc" icon in the video frame to select.
The chair of the Colombian Truth Commission, Francisco de Roux, will talk about this extraordinary analysis carried out in the country in order to establish a legal and sociological framework given the impact of decades of violence. The work of this commission has become a model for similar peace processes around the world. De Roux will talk to the editor of El País Mexico, Jan Martínez Ahrens.
Event organised together with El País
In 1948, the United States of America enacted the Marshall Plan, an initiative to provide foreign aid to Western Europe to help it recover after the Second World War, and to boost the world economy. A panel of experts discuss how a modern version of the Marshall Plan from countries across the world is needed in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
The war has, and will continue to have, long-reaching and long-lasting effects outside the borders of the country economically. Historian Timothy Garton Ash, journalists Emma Graham-Harrison and Sevgil Musaeva, human rights lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk (she will join remotely) and Oleksandr Sushko, Research Director at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation in Kyiv and member of the Maidan People's Union council examine how the war is affecting money, investment and more. From looking at the long-term dangers of a peace on Russian terms to what Ukraine has to offer to the world and what can be done to communicate Ukraine's economic potential, the group will argue that supporting Ukraine's reconstruction and the full restoration of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity can stabilise global food and energy markets. Journalist Kristina Berdinskikh chairs.
Closed captions are available for this event in English and Spanish. Click on the "cc" icon in the video frame to select.
Through time immemorial, architecture has been a means of cultural and temporal expression. Humans have used materials and techniques to generate a large variety of architectural modes adopted by nations and societies as a representative manifestation of themselves, contributing to the construction of the image of the city in which they are placed.
Part 1: Dialogue between Antonio Ortiz and Martha Thorne
Martha Thorne and Antonio Ortiz will talk about the architecture of cities and their transformation to more sustainable models.
Antonio Ortiz is the director of Cruz & Ortiz in Seville. One of the most international architecture firms in the country, they have delivered projects such as the Santa Justa train station, the headquarters of the Seville Provincial Council, the Olympic Stadium and the State Public Library. Over the course of their careers, Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz have received various awards such as the Gold Medal of Andalusia awarded by the Andalusian Regional Government, the National Spanish Architecture Prize, and the City of Seville Prize.
Martha Thorne is a renowned American urban planner. She is currently a senior advisor to the Henrik F. Obel Foundation, where she runs a programme that brings together professors to discuss climate change and how architecture can improve the lives of people and the planet. A distinguished professor at IE University, she was dean of the IE School of Architecture and Design from 2015 to 2022. From 2005 to 2021, she was Executive Director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, popularly known as the "Nobel Prize for Architecture".
Part 2: Round-table debate moderated by Martha Thorne, with Antonio Ortiz, Sonia Mulero and Jaime de los Santos: The agents that transform cities.
The conversation between Martha Thorne, Antonio Ortiz, Sonia Mulero and Jaime de los Santos will address the transformation of cities and the agents that cause these changes.
Sonia Mulero is the director of the Banco Sabadell Foundation. Mulero was named in the 2019 Top100 Women Leaders of Spain, in the tertiary sector category. She serves on the all-women board of trustees at Concomitentes, the board of Foundations for Science (FECYT) and the board of #FundacionesPorElClima of the AEF. With qualifications in Strategic Management and Social Leadership Programme at IESE, a Postgraduate in Finance and Tax at EADA, and Psychology at UOC, she has extensive experience in the management of non-profit organisations in projects linked to talent development to promote creativity and innovation. She was formerly General Manager of Fundación Inlea (CSR of Inlea Corporation, linked to Cisco Systems) and Deputy Manager at CIDOB.
Jaime de los Santos is a politician, historian and writer. He served as the Community of Madrid’s Minister of Culture, and currently holds the role of executive secretariat of Culture, Equality and Social Policies of the Partido Popular (PP political party). He is a regular columnist for El Confidencial and he published his first novel: Si te digo que lo hice (published by Espasa) in 2022.
Organised together with Banco Sabadell Foundation, the Embassy of Portugal in Spain and the Consulate of Portugal in Seville. With the sponsorship of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Sports of the Regional Government of Andalusia, co-financed with European Regional Development Funds (ERDF).
Among the many things wrong with our current socioeconomic system is not just the fact that healthcare is a privilege for the few, but that a whole illness industry exists that is structured around making a profit from those who are unwell, often with serious illnesses. The poet, essayist and lecturer Anne Boyer (United States) won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for The Undying. A Meditation on Modern Illness, an acute and lucid work that tells of her own experience as a survivor of an aggressive breast cancer, which led her to live through and understand some chilling realities. Boyer is also the author of books such as The Romance of Happy Workers (2008), The 2000s (2009), Garments Against Women (2015) and A Handbook of Disappointed Fate (2018). In conversation with Eduardo Rabasa.