Tangram eBook

Tangram is a thriller, a fractured portrait of our contemporary corruption that ranges from the Basque Country to Reykjavík, from London to Calabria.

A set of interlinked stories that combines and recombines into a series of possible narratives, each one giving its own perspective on a world built on deceit and damage.

A morbidly obese woman, a former actress, imprisons two university students in a basement in Getxo in the north of Spain. A psychopath decides on Reykjavík as the theatre for his crimes. A thief, recently released from prison, tries to recover the money that he hid years previously on the outskirts of London. A mafioso, recently arrived in a Calabrian village, manages to win the respect of his fellow citizens even as he extorts money from them. A detective struggles to deal with his police duties and a growing sexual obsession. These stories, apparently separate on the surface, are shown to have far-reaching connections. They are pieces of a puzzle, and it is only on reading the final pages that the last one clicks neatly into place.

Winnerofthe 2012EuskadiPrizeforbestnoveloftheyear

Winnerofthe 2011SintagmaBooksellers’Prize

‘[Márquez’s language] is as incisive and precise as it is brilliant in its deployment of revelatory images’ElPaís

‘Juan Carlos Márquez is one of the safest possible bets in the current generation of Spanish writers’ElMundo