“Bea says that the art of reading is slowly dying, that it's an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day.”

Spanish novelist and screenwriter of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, he crafted atmospheric, gothic-inflected stories blending mystery and melancholy. His most famous work, *The Shadow of the Wind*, became a global sensation for its layered narrative and haunting atmosphere.