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Essences of Tangier: Two books to read this summer
July 07, 20257:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62).
7:00 p.m.
Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
In Spanish.
Casa Árabe is introducing two books for you to read this summer: one is a novel, and the other a book of short stories in which Alberto Gómez Font and Luis Salvago give us a closer look at this mythical city in Morocco, through a journey that mixes reality, fantasy and cocktails, all as a way to bid farewell to the first half of 2025 at Casa Árabe.
Tangier cocktails (from the distant and recent past and today), by Alberto Gómez Font.
“Into the glass of the silver cocktail shaker he introduced three pitted dates, four or five mint leaves and the juice from one and a half lemons; he crushed the ingredients with the flat part of the mixing spoon and added a large amount of ice, ending with three glasses of whiskey. After vigorously shaking the well-lidded cocktail shaker, he served the concoction in chilled cocktail glasses, into which he had previously inserted a date, this time with the pit, and garnished them with a mint leaf.”
This edition brings together the 22 stories from the previous edition and 12 new stories set in the present day. It shows a Tangier filled with spies, assassins and unemployed smugglers, bringing back the memory of the now disappeared home known as Villa Eugenia.
Josephine, by Luis Salvago.
When Josephine Perkins wakes up one morning after a fit of restless sleep, she is startled to find a stranger beside in her bed. She thinks that a dream might have confused her, that perhaps she consumed something which produces bizarre hallucinations. She can, however, feel the warmth of his body and the flow of his breathing. For a moment, she wonders whether she has ended up in somebody else’s house, thinking it is she herself who got into a stranger’s bed. But when he gets up, she discovers that he is behaving as if they have always known each other. Josephine, unable to understand what is happening, attempts to reconstruct her past. She feels that something does not add up, though. The places she remembers no longer exist: the Galeries Lafayette, the Alcazar Cinema and the tailor who fixed her clothes are all closed now.
This event will be attended by the authors themselves and can be followed live on Youtube. Presented by Samyra Lammarty Ben Messoud, a philologist (Complutense University of Madrid) from Tangier, and Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe’s Culture Coordinator.
“Into the glass of the silver cocktail shaker he introduced three pitted dates, four or five mint leaves and the juice from one and a half lemons; he crushed the ingredients with the flat part of the mixing spoon and added a large amount of ice, ending with three glasses of whiskey. After vigorously shaking the well-lidded cocktail shaker, he served the concoction in chilled cocktail glasses, into which he had previously inserted a date, this time with the pit, and garnished them with a mint leaf.”
This edition brings together the 22 stories from the previous edition and 12 new stories set in the present day. It shows a Tangier filled with spies, assassins and unemployed smugglers, bringing back the memory of the now disappeared home known as Villa Eugenia.
Josephine, by Luis Salvago. When Josephine Perkins wakes up one morning after a fit of restless sleep, she is startled to find a stranger beside in her bed. She thinks that a dream might have confused her, that perhaps she consumed something which produces bizarre hallucinations. She can, however, feel the warmth of his body and the flow of his breathing. For a moment, she wonders whether she has ended up in somebody else’s house, thinking it is she herself who got into a stranger’s bed. But when he gets up, she discovers that he is behaving as if they have always known each other. Josephine, unable to understand what is happening, attempts to reconstruct her past. She feels that something does not add up, though. The places she remembers no longer exist: the Galeries Lafayette, the Alcazar Cinema and the tailor who fixed her clothes are all closed now.
This event will be attended by the authors themselves and can be followed live on Youtube. Presented by Samyra Lammarty Ben Messoud, a philologist (Complutense University of Madrid) from Tangier, and Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe’s Culture Coordinator.
