Juan Gómez-Jurado

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Juan Gómez-Jurado

Juan Gómez-Jurado, February 2007
Born (1977-12-16) December 16, 1977
Madrid, Spain
Occupation Novelist, Short story writer, Screenwriter, Columnist
Genres Drama, Thriller
www.juangomezjurado.com

Juan Gómez-Jurado (Born 16 December 1977 in Madrid, Spain) is an award-winning Spanish journalist and bestselling author. Currently, he is a columnist in "La Voz de Galicia," and "ABC", distributed in Spain, and he participates in several radio and TV programs. Translated into 42 languages, Gómez-Jurado is one of the most successful contemporary Spanish authors of all time along with New York Times bestselling authors Javier Sierra and Carlos Ruiz Zafón. His writing has been widely described by critics as "energetic and cinematographic".[1][2]

Gómez-Jurado worked in many the most important Spanish media, like 40 Principales, Cadena Ser, Cadena Cope, Radio España, Canal + and ABC, before hitting the bestseller lists throughout the world with God's Spy (Espía de Dios), his first novel. An instant bestseller in Spain, with rights sold in 42 countries to date and more than a million copies sold, God’s Spy is a contemporary thriller set in the Vatican, where, in the aftermath of Pope John Paul II’s death, the hunt for a serial killer reveals a chilling conspiracy.

On 27 September 2008, Gómez-Jurado won the prestigious Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja for his latest novel The Traitor's Emblem. The plot is set in Germany after the First World War, a thriller that begins one night in 1941 aboard a patrol Spanish ship at the Gibraltar Strait, where Captain González ends rescuing the only survivors from a shipwreck whom he manages to take to the coast of Portugal. The shipwrecked Germans, as a token of their gratitude, present Captain González with a gold emblem, and two words the German leader of the rescued lot will remember for all his life and throughout the novel: "treason" and "salvation". This novel is being translated into 40 languages and will be published in July 2011 in the USA. Kirkus Reviews praised "The traitor's emblem": "riveting thriller with a redeeming love story".[3]

Books and literature

  • The Traitor's Emblem (Atria, 2011).
  • The Moses Expedition (Atria, 2010. Published by Orion, 2010 as Contract with God).
  • God's Spy (Dutton, 2007), English translation of Espía de Dios by James Graham.
  • La Masacre de Virginia Tech: Anatomía de una mente torturada (El Andén, 2007).
  • Identidad Secreta (Lago Ediciones, 2007).
  • Otras voces (Alfaguara, 1996).

Controversy and media reaction

There were several very controversial issues in Spain relating to God's Spy. The main reason is that the antagonist, Viktor Karoski, is a serial killer, pedophile priest. In the book there is a highly detailed portrait of Saint Matthew's Institute, a carbon copy of a real institution in the United States (Maryland based, as well) dedicated to the rehabilitation of sex-offender priests. Some catholic organizations in Spain and Poland protested against the novel because of this. In both countries, nonetheless, the main reaction of the critics was fairly favourable to the novel. In the USA the reviews were positive. Booklist, i. e., praised the book as a "First-rate thriller".

Personal life and philanthropy

Juan Gómez-Jurado is married and lives in Madrid, Spain, with his wife and two children. After his wife was diagnosed with cancer, Gómez-Jurado became an activist to fighting colon cancer. He is also an ambassador of Save The Children. He led campaigns as "1 libro 1 euro", a website in which Internet users can download books in exchange for a voluntary donation to Save the Children.

List of works

  • Espía de Dios ("God's Spy", a novel), Roca Editorial, 2006, Spain. (Translated to English, Danish, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Italian, German, Serbian Dutch and Finnish.
  • La masacre de Virginia Tech ("The Virginia Tech Massacre", a chronicle), El Anden, 2007, Spain.
  • Contrato con Dios ("Contract with God", a novel), (also published as "The Moses Expedition", a novel), El Anden, 2007, Spain.
  • El emblema del traidor, Plaza & Janés, 2008, Spain. Winner of the 2008 Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja.

Awards and nominations

External links

References

  1. ↑ Booklist review of God's Spy
  2. ↑ Bookreporter review of God's Spy
  3. ↑ Kirkus Reviews on The Traitor's Emblem
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