Adelaida García Morales


Adelaida García Morales was a Spanish writer.

Life and work

Born in Badajoz, García Morales moved at the age of 13 to Seville, her parents' home town. She lived there for most of her youth. She went to university in Madrid, obtaining a degree in philosophy and letters in 1970. She also studied screenwriting at the Escuela Oficial de Cine. She then worked as a high school teacher, teaching Spanish and philosophy, and as a model and actress, forming part of the theatre group Esperpento. She also worked for a while as a translator in Algeria.
Her first novel, Archipiélago was published in 1981, but success didn't come until 1985, when she published her acclaimed volume of two novellas: El sur, seguido de Bene. The story El sur was made into a famous film by her then partner Víctor Erice, whom she had first met in 1972.
Her next book, El silencio de las sirenas, set in Capileira, was her most successful work, winning the Premio Herralde and the Premio Ícaro. The principal theme of the novel: an obsessive, unrequited love, was said to be based on her own obsession with the philosopher Eugenio Trías, whom she had only met once.
García Morales died of heart failure in 2014 in Dos Hermanas, in the province of Seville.

Publications

Novels