On June 11, in the magnificent auditorium of the Mutua Madrid, my new book Pentagonía appeared. Final act (Seneca editions). Prof. Jaime Lamo de Espinosa opened the session, on behalf of the Board of Directors of an entity so favoring culture. To which I gave the most felt thanks, with simple words: “Come the mutual.”
I want to thank, also, the comments that made the new work the philosopher Pedro G. Cuartango and the writer Tom Burns Marañón. They gave us some interesting clues for the subsequent reading of the book, which my number 83 does.
The story of Pentagonía. Final certificate has its initial episode in 1976, a difficult time for the transition from Spain to democracy. I, at that time, was a member of the PCE and on the occasion I had a lot of free time, being a prisoner for a few months of Fraga Iribarne – Minister of the Government, with Arias Navarro as president of the Government -, in the Carabanchel prison. There I wrote my first novel: History of Elio.
That story was presented to the 1976 Planet Award, with episodes that followed, only understandable at that time. Because one day, two responsible for the aforementioned editorial group, José Manuel Lara Bosch, and an assistant of his, whose last name was Alcubilla (I do not remember the name of a stack), they asked that we will see us urgently for a matter of importance.
In the visit they made me, they told me that I was well seen by the jury, and that it was possible to award me the precious reward. But at that time an unexpected difficulty arose: Manuel Fraga Iribarne, the aforementioned Minister of the Interior, told the Planeta group that if the prize was awarded to Tamames, the edition would be confiscated. Neither more nor less, and we will continue and end next week with the story.