Books and publications
Index / Activities / Books and publications / An evening with María Dueñas
An evening with María Dueñas
June 11, 20258:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe headquarters (at Calle Alcalá, 62).
8:00 p.m.
Prior registration required.
Please sign up using this form.
In Spanish.
On Wednesday, June 11 at its Madrid headquarters, Casa Árabe is hosting this evening with the author of “Por si un día volvemos” (“In Case We Return Someday, published by Editorial Planeta). Sign up now to attend.
The writer will be taking part in a dialogue with Raquel Gisbert, head of the Domestic Fiction Department at Editorial Planeta.
Plot summary
In Oran, during the 1920s, a young woman disembarks with the pseudonym of Cecilia Belmonte into this African city with an Arab origin, a Spanish heartbeat and a French government. In appearance alone, she has just crossed the Mediterranean to escape poverty, like so many of her countrymen.
The real reason, however, is much less clear. Her urgent need to make a living forces her to work her fingers to the bone on plantations and in laundries, as a domestic worker and as a piece-rate factory worker. Then, early one morning at the Bastos Tobacco Factory, she takes part in a crime for which she pays by falling prey to a despicable man. Her integrity will be what frees her and gives her the courage to rebuild her life, embarking on a path to redemption, filled with unexpected turns, achievements and challenges spanning three vibrant decades.
This is the story of a woman who lived through the colonial boom times, and the tragic end of French Algeria. At the same time, the pages of the book bring back the memory of the forgotten ”pieds-noirs,” who, drawn there by emigration and exile, formed part of that world.
María Dueñas (Puertollano, Ciudad Real, 1964) has a PhD in English Philology. After two decades devoted to academic life, she burst onto the literature scene in 2009 with her book El tiempo entre costuras, a novel which became a publishing phenomenon and whose TV adaptation by the Spanish network Antena 3 won numerous awards, while also a spectacular success among audiences. Her later works, Misión Olvido (2012), La Templanza (2015), Las hijas del Capitán (2018) and Sira (2021), continued to captivate readers and critics alike. Translated into more than 35 languages and with millions of copies sold worldwide, María Dueñas has become one of the most highly esteemed authors in both our country and Latin America. Por si un día volvemos is her sixth novel.
Plot summary
In Oran, during the 1920s, a young woman disembarks with the pseudonym of Cecilia Belmonte into this African city with an Arab origin, a Spanish heartbeat and a French government. In appearance alone, she has just crossed the Mediterranean to escape poverty, like so many of her countrymen.
The real reason, however, is much less clear. Her urgent need to make a living forces her to work her fingers to the bone on plantations and in laundries, as a domestic worker and as a piece-rate factory worker. Then, early one morning at the Bastos Tobacco Factory, she takes part in a crime for which she pays by falling prey to a despicable man. Her integrity will be what frees her and gives her the courage to rebuild her life, embarking on a path to redemption, filled with unexpected turns, achievements and challenges spanning three vibrant decades.
This is the story of a woman who lived through the colonial boom times, and the tragic end of French Algeria. At the same time, the pages of the book bring back the memory of the forgotten ”pieds-noirs,” who, drawn there by emigration and exile, formed part of that world.
María Dueñas (Puertollano, Ciudad Real, 1964) has a PhD in English Philology. After two decades devoted to academic life, she burst onto the literature scene in 2009 with her book El tiempo entre costuras, a novel which became a publishing phenomenon and whose TV adaptation by the Spanish network Antena 3 won numerous awards, while also a spectacular success among audiences. Her later works, Misión Olvido (2012), La Templanza (2015), Las hijas del Capitán (2018) and Sira (2021), continued to captivate readers and critics alike. Translated into more than 35 languages and with millions of copies sold worldwide, María Dueñas has become one of the most highly esteemed authors in both our country and Latin America. Por si un día volvemos is her sixth novel.
