Hay Festival Cartagena 2026

With Morir en la arena Leonardo Padura returns with another masterful description of his native Cuba. He is the chronicler of a lost generation, one that has endured half a century of difficulties, and in his book Havana becomes another character, a witness to the passage of time and wasted promises. Rodolfo, marked by the patricide committed by his brother and reminders of the war in Angola, has recently retired, and intimacy with his sister-in-law, an old love, begins. With his brother, terminally ill, leaving prison and returning home, echoes of the past, long buried, haunt the present.

Annie Jacobsen (USA) was a Pulitzer Prize finalist with The Pentagon’s Brain, which was a detailed look into the US military and intelligence apparatus, a field that she has also dealt with in Area 51 and Operation Paperclip. Her latest book, Nuclear War: a Scenario, describes —using realistic events, actions and protocols— how exactly the nuclear war that would bring about the end of humanity might unfold.

Event in English

Juan Gabriel Vásquez will talk about his most recent book, Los nombres de Feliza, a recreation of the life of the sculptor Feliza Bursztyn, who was a freethinking artist who went beyond the limits set by the times for women like her. This rigorous novel weaves together art, history and memoir. He will talk to Juan Manuel Ruiz and Alexandra Vives.