Overview
- He introduced himself as “a young promise of Spanish narrative” and joked that vanity is the last thing to go.
- He recalled a strict, tedious education that he said left him idle, spendthrift and a bit roguish, traits he deemed useful for writing novels.
- He portrayed Barcelona as warm and industrious yet also seedy and rakish, a turbulent past he has mined for his fiction.
- He thanked readers, friends and family, calling “supplier of happiness” the most valuable praise he has received.
- He voiced discomfort with the world as he sees it and closed by quipping he would not follow Joan Manuel Serrat’s example of singing.