My first recommendation of the new academic year is a book in which I have full confidence, LIBELO DE SANGRE, by a new author, Sandra Aza, who is going to revolutionize the Historical genre. The truth is that when I read Sandra’s novel, I felt a shiver run through my body, which I rarely feel, despite reading a lot, but which told me that this text had something special. It was a very well documented Historical novel, wonderfully written and, although there was work to be done, everything told me that, if we could find the perfect partner, this would be the novel about Madrid that had never existed, as LA CATEDRAL DEL MAR was the novel about Barcelona. So we went for it, and we have here the great novel of Madrid in the Golden Age. I assure you that, although it is long, like all good Historical novels, you will read it in a weekend. There’s no way to stop. It is one of the great bets of Planeta, who also believed in this novel, and Raquel Gisbert and Zoa have been the perfect team so that LIBELO DE SANGRE does not lack or surplus anything. It is simply a spectacular novel, at the height of great Historical bestsellers. Here is a little bit of the plot:

During the harsh winter of 1620 a gruesome crime has spread panic in every corner of Madrid: a young woman has been raped and buried next to a child whose heart has been removed.

No one in the town doubts that it is a ritual murder, and soon starts a “blood libel” against the notary Sebastián Castro and his wife Margarita, a false accusation that blames the Jews for sacrificing Christian minors to perform black magic ceremonies.

Fortunately, Alonso, the eldest son of the couple, has managed to escape from the Inquisition, in charge of investigating the crime and its horrible methods; but now he must face other dangers no less terrible: cold, hunger and the wretched people who populate the streets.

Devastated and with no other help than that of two rogue vagabonds, he will try to carry out the only goal that keeps him alive: to rescue his parents.

When faith in God kindled hearts, but crimes against it lit bonfires.

I would love for you to give this novel a chance, and for all of you who trusted my intuition with LA CATEDRAL DEL MAR, to do it again now, because they are parallel novels in different cities. Sandra Aza can become, without any doubt, the new Historical bestseller, and bring this genre back into fashion, which we know that when it hooks the public at large, and are reference novels becoming longsellers. This one deserves it, the author is exceptional as a writer, and even more as a person, so I hope that international publishers will ask me for reading material without hesitation, and that in Frankfurt they will already talk about LIBELO DE SANGRE as a new phenomenon, and that readers will bet on this text because it will not disappoint them. This time I have no doubt, it is one of the best novels I have read in recent years.