Umbral

The publication of The cold of a life, in 2004, marked a before and after in the domain of the Spanish biography genre. The brilliant and rigorous interpretation that was made of the Threshold writing based on the real obstacles and difficulties that did not stop besieging the writer throughout his life (1932-2007) -and that until then had remained hidden- was a novelty and also a challenge. Anna Caballé established the circumstances in which Francisco Umbral's childhood and adolescence took place and his arrival in Madrid. She also analyzed and contextualized in depth her tireless work as a columnist and writer and her relationship with women and power, all of which is built into the book with a restrained passion that, however, is always very perceptible in the author's style. The result was an illuminating, brave and risky book that avoided compliments to expose the most relevant events in Umbral's life, without forgetting a possible interpretation of them. The biography of a living writer such as had not been written before in Spain.