“
A highly original writer, with a
talent I haven’t
seen for years.
Carol Paris (Roca Editorial)
Jesús Cañadas
JESÚS CAÑADAS was born in 1980 in Cádiz, Spain. His short stories have become famous in genre magazines as Asimov, Miasma and Aurora and formed part of the anthologies Visiones 2008, The Best of Spanish Steampunk (hence the connection to Félix Palma), Charco Negro and Presencia Humana. In 2011, he published his first novel that was shortlisted for the Scifiworld Award in 2011. The Penguin Random House Group spotted him in 2013, publishing his second novel Los nombres muertos, later shortlisted for the Celsius Award of Genre Fiction. Since then, he has been labelled as one of the most outstanding genre writers in Spain. In 2015, Valdemar published his horror novel Pronto será de noche, a tribute to his masters Julio Cortázar and Stephen King. He currently lives in Berlin where he combines his literary work with his work for Spanish TV and Movie Producers.
Dientes rojos (Red Teeth)
Fiction, thriller, 369 pp
"Red Teeth" is probably the most fascinating and mindblowing thriller we have read in years, with an atmospheric setting in the German capital and delightful nods to the biggest authors of the genre. Throughout the story we don’t know where evil will come from next, neither does it show where and if salvation might be possible. Fantastic elements climb into the Cop-Story like zombies and turn everything upside down, evil and good get mixed up and finally revenge will have its way.
“Jesús Cañadas now clearly wears the crown of the Fantastical Thriller in Spain.” Juan Gómez-Jurado
— Sold to: Spain (Obscura), Germany (Suhrkamp), Brazil (Nova Fronteira)
Las tres muertes de Fermín Salvochea (The three Deaths of Fermín Salvochea)
Fiction, 528 pp
1907: Four suburban children are chasing the monsters of an atmospheric turn of the century Cádiz, together with some of the world’s most famous vampire hunters of their time. It all started back in 1873 when the new mayor of the city, Fermín Salvochea, a famously beloved figure in the Spanish Anarchist movement, started hunting down some of the sources of evil in his city. In the novel, his assistant will be the father of one of our small protagonists, a barber with good looks but also very prone to drinking and whoring around. But Juaíco conserves a pure heart and this is what Salvochea needs for his fight. However, when Salvochea dies in 1907, his dead body disappears and his former assistant completely loses control, so now the children have to take over: But some of their demons are also terribly real, like the head of the orphanage where the two girls are mistreated and harshly punished, for crimes they never committed. Now, even their secret hiding place, the rabbithole, might not be able to protect them...
— Sold to: Spain (Roca Editorial)
Noviembre (November)
Fiction, novel, Middle Grade, 11+, 240 pp
This Middle Grade offers us a literary game, with a nod to Cornelia Funke and elements of fantasy as is the author's trademark, and we got really caught up with his young and intriguing protagonists. Between “The City of Dreaming Books” and “Inkheart”, “November” presents us with a brilliant protagonist who tries to save the daughter of a famous writer whom he adores but who will become his worst adversary.
— Sold to: Spain (Edebé), Catalunya (Edebé), Germany (Coppenrath)
Athenea y los Elementos (Athenea and the Elements)
Fiction, Middle Grade Series (Five Books), novels, 10+, ca. 250 pp each
The adventures of Athenea von Hammerstein, a resolute, temperamental girl, and Mehdi Firat, a cautious but noble boy who dreams of being an inventor, introduce us into a world of mythological creatures called avernals, capable of controlling the elements. Both Athenea and Mehdi belong to this lineage of these magical beings. In the books of the saga, they both travel together through 20th century Europe, visiting ancient cultures, discovering secrets and confronting the Alchemist, a masked golden-eyed character who tries to steal the essence of the four elements in order to feed a sinister machine with mischievous ends.
Five volumes published in Spain (El ojo de Nefertiti/The Eye of Nefertiti, El corazón de Atlantis/The Heart of Atlantis, La serpiente alada/The Snake with Wings and La hermandad del ataúd/The Brotherhood of the Coffin, La máscara del alquimista/The Mask of the Alchemist
Athenea and the Elements is a saga that follows the personal development of two children who come of age, offering adventure, humour and fast-paced action with well distributed winks to authors such as Rick Riordan, Cornelia Funke or Hergé.
— Sold to: Spain (Edebé), Catalunya (Edebé)
Pronto será de noche (As the Night Falls)
Fiction, 256 pp
An unknown cataclysm has been unleashed upon the world. Thousands of people try to escape, hide or meet their loved ones for one last time, only to find themselves trapped in an endless traffic jam in the middle of a deserted Spanish national road. As the end comes nearer, a traveler is brutally murdered, and now it will take one embittered and hopeless policeman to find the killer before time runs out and all hell breaks loose. In this thriller, Cañadas takes us on a nightmarish road trip. A tribute to his masters: Julio Cortázar, Stephen King and Juan Rulfo.
— Sold to: Spain (Valdemar), Movie Rights (Babieka)