Males arts

Spain / Carena Editores - Spanish World

“Gasull has built a Kafkaesque castle through which his leading character roams: Miquel, an architect who has fallen prey to the crisis and the protagonist of a fast-paced and witty novel set in the here and now.” Anna M. Gil, La Vanguardia

“A writer’s sharp debut about the destruction left by a time of irresponsibility.” Josep Lambies, Time Out

“Males arts is not an account of the wheeling and dealing of real estate developers at the height of the bricks-and-mortar frenzy, but rather a portrait of the personal lives of its protagonists and the world around them at a very particular moment in our recent past.” Jordi Vilarrodà, El 9Nou

“I recommend this novel, which throws the reader headlong into a world of luxury and back-stabbing,  an engrossing portrait of a society in thrall to success and the lure of a quick buck." Silvia Cantos, silviacantos.blogspot.com.es

“A fast-paced tale, told at a gallop. A moral novel, set at the dawn of the 21^st century, an indictment of the craving for luxury and all its trappings brought about by corruption in all its guises, deftly handled by the author.” Enric Tubert

“A splendid first outing in noir fiction.” Mucho más que un libro blog

(Dark Arts) December 2004. Several years ago the property market was flooded with upstarts from all corners hoping to get rich from the situation. Investors, vendors and brokers at all levels appeared, along with a new emerging “species”: those who have started to build wealth and need to prove it. Surrounded by this fauna, a young couple, Miquel and Raquel, move into the house they have built in a village in Alt Empordà. Miquel is the architect who designed the house, and for Raquel the house is a dream come true. His work has gone very well in recent years and Raquel has become accustomed to expensive cars, luxury holidays, the best hotels and designer clothes. But she doesn’t know that everything is about to go horribly wrong: Miquel is ruined and they are in danger of losing their home.

With a dynamic plot and fresh language, Males arts gives an accurate account of a society eager for and dazzled by success, allowing itself to fall into the trap set by the illusions of a freak period. A recent past that has very quickly been left behind.