Southern Seas (1979)

The most talented crime writer in Spain, Manuel Vazquez Montalban (1939-2003) was the creator of a well known figure, not only in his home country: sarcastic, eficient, untidy, nihilistic, gourmand and somewhat politically incorrect Pepe Carvalho. The detective was the main character in a series of acclaimed novels that Vázquez Montalbán set up mainly in Barcelona throughout three decades and three different political periods in Spain: the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Southern Seas (1979) is, to many, his best Carvalho novel. Winner of the Planeta prize that year, the narration introduces us to the turbulent Barcelona of the strict center of the Spanish Transition years. Those that took Spain away from a 40-year dictatorship into a long sought after democracy.

The plot is a skillful one. The characters are vivid and discursive, with well achieved psychologies and motivations. But the main character is Barcelona itself, the Barcelona of that last year of the 1970s, with its social unrest, the nervoussness at the streets, the gesticulation of the engagés, the political debate, the ideological effervescence of a country at the crossroads.

Reading Southern Seas is like plunging into 1979 Barcelona and touch it with the fingers, living almost first hand a crucial time in Spain. Recreating in one´s mind the political past, while enjoying a well fitted, clever noir adventure.

Southern Seas, 1979. Manuel Vázquez Montalbán