Writer Pedro Zarraluki dies at the age of 70
The author of novels such as 'The One Responsible for the Frogs' was also the founder of Cafè Salambó
BarcelonaThe writer Pedro Zarraluki (Barcelona, 1954) has passed away at the age of 70. Zarraluki is the author of fifteen titles, including the novels The person responsible for the frogs (Anagrama, 1990) and The story of silence (Anagrama, 1994) and the collection of stories I'll wait for you inside (Destino, 2014). The literary world and the celebration of life are two of the common themes of his literature, which often revolves around characters in search of happiness and explains their vicissitudes in a comedic tone. "In no case do I judge the characters. I don't like authors who are intrusive," said the author. Apart from his career as a writer, Zarraluki also founded and ran the Cafè Salambó in the Barcelona neighborhood of Gràcia.
Zarraluki began his career as a writer when he was just over 20 years old. He had just returned to Barcelona after military service and was working in the kitchen of a restaurant when he began to think about writing a novel. It was when he was only 25 years old that he published The tenth symphony (Argos Vergara) and, a few years later, the collection of stories Gallery of enormities (Anagrama, 1983). The novel The Night of the Stagehand came three years later (Lengua de Trapo, 1986): it is a story of adventure and mystery in an idyllic Ibiza inhabited by Nazi officers and artists traumatized by the war.
The 90s were, for Zarraluki, a golden age of awards and recognition. In 1990 he won the Ciutat de Barcelona award for The person responsible for the frogs, a chronicle of a lost paradise starring a writer and narrated in a comedic tone. Four years later, Zarraluki won the Herralde Prize for The story of silence, a tragicomic novel about a peculiar relationship between a couple. In 2005 Zarraluki was awarded the Nadal Prize for A difficult task, a novel about a mother and daughter exiled on the island of Cabrera during the post-war period. Three years later she arrived All that we like so much (Destino, 2008), a father-son story set in Camallera, where Zarraluki resided intermittently for decades.
In 1992 Zarraluki founded –together with the sculptor Francisco García and the literary agent Carmen Balcells– the Cafè Salambó in Gracia. The place became a reference point for writers and editors and also gave its name to a literary prize awarded between 2000 and 2008, which awarded the best narrative book in Catalan and Spanish published in Spain during the previous year. The main peculiarity of the prize, which had no financial endowment, was that the jury was made up of 15 writers.
A melancholic sense of humour
For years, the writer combined his role as a novelist and as a short story writer. The latter took shape with titles such as the anthology Prodigal humor (Destiny, 2007) and I'll wait for you inside (Destino, 2014). With this latest book, the writer inaugurated a new path in short narrative with a more melancholic sense of humor. "Seen from the outside, even the most frightening drama can be funny. My current sense of humor has its feet on the ground," said Zarraluki. in an interview with ARA. His last title was The curve of forgetting (Destino, 2021), in which he returned to the novel to explore the relationships between two fathers and their daughters in Ibiza in the late 1960s.
