Rosa Montero in conversation with Nuria Labari

Good Luck (La buena suerte) is not always down to a matter of luck. Or at least that’s what it seems from Rosa Montero’s latest novel, which with its beguiling and yet mysterious title leads us into a mind-boggling tale of persecutions and lies about Good and Evil, how Good triumphs despite it all and how good luck is something one has to earn. Since her first novel, Chronicle of a heartbreak (Crónica del desamor) was released in 1979, the writer from Madrid has published close to fifty works spanning novels, essays, short stories and journalism.

She has garnered several awards, among them the Nacional de las Letras Españolas in 2017 for many of her works including La hija del caníbal, La loca de la casa (crafted in a genre that straddles between reality and fiction, one of her hallmarks), El rey Transparente, Instrucciones para salvar el mundo, La ridícula idea de no volver a verte or La carne. Her impertinently inquisitive detective Bruna Husky has to date generated three books: Lágrimas en la lluvia, El peso del corazón and Los tiempos del odio. Her long and intense work as a journalist has also brought in awards such as the Club Internacional de Prensa or the Manuel Alcántara de la Universidad de Málaga. She is known for her defence of human rights and the quest for equality for women.

Rosa Montero will speak with the writer and journalist Nuria Labari, who made a name for herself in the realm of literature with her short story book Los borrachos de mi vida for which she obtained Caja de Madrid narrative award. She also wrote the novels Cosas que brillan cuando están rotas and La mejor madre del mundo. She features in the Pequeñas resistencias anthology by Andrés Neuman.

Rosa Montero’s photography: © Alejandro Ruesga, courtesy of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial

Nuria Labari’s photography: courtesy of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial