In an exhaustive and revealing book, the writer addresses the figure of the representative of emblematic authors who stood out as one of the most influential people in Hispanic literature.

“Carmen Balcells was an unusual person. She was capable of dealing with either Fidel Castro or the kings of Spain. She was a woman without prejudice, she could admire Queen Letizia and a FARC guerrilla,” says the writer Carme Riera, who spent a good part of the strictest confinement during covid "living" with Balcells, the heavyweight of Spanish literature.

A great and terrible woman at the same time

To write about Carmen Balcells, merchant of words, Riera has taken into account an extensive bibliography and a lot of witnesses who have spoken about Balcells. However, Riera not only echoes the voices that praise her; she also collects what Daniel Vázquez Sallés, son of Vázquez Montalbán, wrote in “Memorias sin libertad,” where he paints a ruthless portrait of the literary agent and assures that the writers were the first to mythologize Balcells, whom he considers a brilliant but horrible woman.

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