A few weeks ago, a famous writer remarked that journalism in France can rival its literature in depth and insight. The same vein of discussion often surfaces in literary circles when tracing the influence of a character from Antonio Tabucchi’s fiction. Pereira, a long-time editor of a cultural supplement in a Lisbon newspaper, becomes a backdrop to a tale set in the Salazar era through a door that time forgot. At present, a new novel by Julio Llamazares, published by Alfaguara, revisits themes of memory, journalism, and the artist’s vocation, weaving them into a narrative that feels almost cinematic.
There are many famous writers who also worked as journalists, such as García Márquez and Miguel Delibes. A striking contemporary example is Italian journalist Nicola Pugliese, whose work appeared last year alongside other notable profiles in journalism-inspired fiction. In Llamazares’ work, the journalist Pereira is not simply a reporter; he becomes a narrative instrument, a conduit through which the story is built. The plot follows a seasoned reporter who returns to a provincial town where his own story began, at the newspaper where a colleague died while overseeing the cultural section. In that same place, he unearths several manuscripts written by a friend who once guided his early career as a journalist, uncovering a personal archive that reshapes his understanding of his craft.
Julio Llamazares, a native of León, is a writer of many hats. He has engaged with almost every literary form imaginable—from narrative and poetry to screenplays, travel writing, and essays. After studying law, he devoted himself to journalism and letters, publishing his first novel in 1985. The work titled Full Moon, later adapted into a film in 1987, helped establish his reputation as a versatile storyteller who moves easily between genres and media.
wealth
The novel vagalume, though written in Spanish, carries a Galician word that translates to firefly. The central figure is Manuel Castro, a Galician journalist who writes by lamplight in the quiet hours after dark, hence the family name vagalume. Spain’s linguistic richness is a notable treasure, and the usage of a regional term to illuminate a universal theme underlines the country’s diverse cultural fabric. Llamazares invites readers to consider what it means to be vagalume—to shine in the night, even when the world is asleep.
The narrative follows a journalist whose late-night writing sessions reveal more about literature than about bestsellers. His literary passion supersedes the drive for mass appeal, a sentiment echoed by Juan Cruz in an interview with the author: literature should not be reduced to mere commercial achievement.
Within the tale, a line attributed to Manuel Castro surfaces: “the writer is the one who continues to write even if he hasn’t published.” This line threads together romance and asceticism and echoes a broader literary anxiety from the early twentieth century, reminding readers of Max Beerbohm’s Enoch Soames, a tale in which a mediocre writer is tempted by the future to see if his work will ever be published or found in libraries. The warning is clear: fame and publication can tempt arrogance, sometimes at the cost of authentic craft.
Mystery
The story opens with a melancholy mood designed to pull the reader in, and the mystery soon grows into the central conflict. A forgotten manuscript written by the protagonist’s friend surfaces, and soon afterward the widow uncovers several other manuscripts among the late hero’s belongings. Why were these manuscripts kept hidden? The narrator follows the thread, tugging at it until the hidden soul of the friend begins to reveal itself.
A notable device in the novel is the narrator’s voice, reminiscent of Nick Carraway in Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. In contrast to Tabucchi’s more anonymous narrator, Llamazares crafts a storyteller who discovers a story and then guides the reader through its folds. The prose is clean and rhythmic, inviting a careful, patient reading that culminates in a powerful sense of literary passion manifested by the hero’s journey. The work presents literature as an inexhaustible human pursuit, a passion that outlives the writer’s own life and ego.