Eduardo Mendoza, Isabel Allende, Atxaga and Luis García Montero arrive in bookstores this April

The writers Eduardo Mendoza, Isabel Allende, Bernardo Atxaga and Luis García Montero are some of the authors who will reach bookstores with literary novelties during this month of April, the most literary of each year, among other reasons, because the Cervantes Prize is awarded, the highest award in Hispanic literature.

Traditionally, this ceremony takes place on April 23, coinciding with World Book Day and the anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes. The solemn ceremony is presided over by the Kings of Spain in the Auditorium of the University of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), which this edition will recognize Gonzalo Celorio.

As for editorial news, Mendoza will return to his nameless detective in ‘The Intrigue of the Inconvenient Funeral’ (Seix Barral), a novel that begins with a chronicle of a funeral published in a local newspaper that will trigger a financial plot and a conspiracy with “disproportionate” consequences.

This protagonist has already been present in other Catalan books such as ‘The Mystery of the Haunted Crypt’, ‘The Labyrinth of Olives’ or ‘The Secret of the Lost Model’.

On the other hand, ‘The Magic Word’ will go on sale on the 9th of this month. A written life’ (Plaza & Janés), the new book by Isabel Allende in which she reflects on the role that writing has had throughout her life and in which she explains her creative process.

Also this day ‘Golondrinas’ (Alfaguara), by Bernardo Atxaga, the new novel of the 2019 National Literature Prize, arrives at bookstores; a story about memory, guilt and silences that span several decades of characters whose lives are marked by violence and moral ambiguity.

One day before, on Wednesday, April 8, the writer and director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, returns to the novel with ‘The Best Age’ (Tusquets). The author narrates the reunion of a prisoner who has rebuilt his life and the judge who sentenced him to prison in 1975.

The crime novel also hits bookstores on April 9 from the Galician author Arantza Portabales, who writes ‘Asesinato en el Molino del Cura’ (Lumen).

Backed by the 2026 Azorín Novel Prize, editor Pablo Álvarez debuts with ‘The need to love’ (Planeta), a love story that looks at sexist violence and bisexuality and seeks to reflect on a generation marked by fear and the desire for freedom. Also in the genre of romantic novel, the Valencian author Alice Kellen publishes ‘El club del olvido’ (Planeta) on April 8,

In terms of international narrative, Walter Tevis, author of ‘The Queen’s Gambit’, will be edited by Impedimenta in ‘The King Has Died’, where his complete stories are brought together for the first time in Spanish.

You can also read in Spain Freida McFadden, the author of ‘The Assistant’, who after exceeding 50 million copies sold with this novel returns to literature with a domestic ‘thriller’: ‘Dear Debbie’ (Suma).

For his part, the author John Irving returns to the world he created in ‘The Rules of Cider’ and the St. Cloud’s orphanage with ‘Queen Esther’ (Tusquets), his new novel in which he accompanies the girl who gives the book its name and who has trouble finding a foster family until the Winslows appear. “A story of survival and a deep exploration of identity and belonging,” explains the imprint.

Also published this month is ‘Life at the End’ (Anagrama), by acclaimed writer Bernhard Schlink, author of ‘The Reader’ and ‘The Granddaughter’. In this novel, “full of warmth,” Schlink delves into the ephemerality of life, the importance of human relationships and the value of the time that remains.