Duende

Zusatztext

<p>Having pursued a conventional enough path through school and university, Jason Webster was all set to enter the world of academe as a profession. But when his aloof Florentine girlfriend of some years dumped him unceremoniously, he found himself at a crossroads. Abandoning the world of libraries and the future he had always imagined for himself, he headed off instead for Spain in search of duende, the intense emotional state - part ecstasy, part desperation - so intrinsic to flamenco.</p><p><i>Duende</i>is an account of his years spent in Spain feeding his obsessive interest in flamenco: he subjects himself to the tyranny of his guitar teacher, practising for hours on end until his fingers bleed; he becomes involved in a passionate affair with Lola, a flamenco dancer (and older woman) married to the gun-toting Vicente, only to flee Alicante in fear of his life; in Madrid, he falls in with Gypsies and meets the imperious Jesús. Joining their dislocated, cocaine-fuelled world, stealing cars by night and sleeping away the days in tawdry rooms, he finds himself spiralling self-destructively downwards. It is only when he arrives in Granada bruised and battered, after two years total immersion in the flamenco lifestyle that he is able to put his obsession into context.</p><p>In the tradition of Laurie Lee's classic<i>As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning</i>,<i>Duende</i>charts a young man's emotional coming of age and offers real insight into the passionate essence of flamenco.</p>

Autorenportrait

Brought up in England, Jason Webster has lived for many years in Spain. His acclaimed non-fiction books about Spain include<i>Duende: A Journey in Search of Flamenco</i>;<i>Andalus:</i><i>Unlocking the Secrets of Moorish Spain</i>;<i>Guerra: Living in the Shadows of the Spanish Civil War</i>;<i>Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain</i>and<i>The Spy with 29 Names.</i>His Max Cámara series of crime novels started with<i>Or the Bull Kills You</i>, which was was longlisted for the CWA Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards New Blood Dagger 2011. This was followed by<i>A Death in Valencia</i><i>,</i><i>The Anarchist Detective, Blood Med</i>and<i>A Body in Barcelona.</i>

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