Chasing foreign stories is a thrilling experience. There are no guidebooks that teach you how to do it, no tutorials, no specific courses that can prepare you for the task. It is a mix of detective work, archaeological hunts, literary scouting, and sometimes, translating willpower that forces you to dig in the repositories of magazines, publishing websites, and authors’ pages.
The actual literary landscape in Spain is quite gloomy if compared with equivalent European markets. The situation is a mixture of “highs” and “lows”: high taxes on books, and roaring unemployment rate; low percentage of readers among the general public, minimal credibility of the successive administrations, due to mismanagement and numerous scandals. The general political climate is in turmoil, even though it seems there are timid signs of recuperation in the economic front.