María Concepción Alós Domingo (22 May 1926 – 1 August 2011), better known as Concha Alós, was a Spanish writer. She was a recipient of the

Premio Planeta de Novela The Premio Planeta de Novela is a Spanish literary prize, awarded since 1952 by the Spanish publisher Grupo Planeta to an original unpublished novel written in Spanish. It is one of about 16 literary prizes given by Planeta. Financially, it is the ...

Biography

Born in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

, Alós lived the better part of her life in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. In 1962 she made her literary debut with the novel ''Los Enanos'', and followed it up with ''Los cien pájaros'' in 1963. The success she attained with her early works was consolidated in 1964 when she received the 13th

literary prize for her novel ''Las hogueras''. Her last published novel was ''El asesino de los sueños'' in 1986. Part of her childhood was spent in

Castellón de la Plana Castellón de la Plana (officially in ca-valencia, Castelló de la Plana), or simply Castellón ( ca-valencia, Castelló, link=no) is the capital city of the province of Castellón, in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is located in the east ...

, currently in the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid with ...

, within a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

working-class family. Due to bombardments by

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

forces during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, the family moved to Lorca, Murcia. A similar flight and return is the central theme of her novel ''El caballo rojo''. She was the wife and disseminator of the work of the writer, journalist, and literary critic

Baltasar Porcel Baltasar Porcel i Pujol (; Andratx, Majorca, 14 March 1937 – Barcelona, 1 July 2009) was a Spanish writer, journalist and literary critic. His enormous legacy credited him as one of the greatest authors in Catalan literature from the 20th century ...

, and translated part of his work from

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

Castilian Spanish In English, Castilian Spanish can mean the variety of Peninsular Spanish spoken in northern and central Spain, the standard form of Spanish, or Spanish from Spain in general. In Spanish, the term (Castilian) can either refer to the Spanish langua ...

. They met while Porcel was working as a typesetter at the

Francoist Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

n newspaper ''Baleares'', owned by Alós's first husband. Year later, both writers got divorced. Her work is framed within realism and social testimony. It addresses in direct language issues which were common in

Spanish literature Spanish literature generally refers to literature ( Spanish poetry, prose, and drama) written in the Spanish language within the territory that presently constitutes the Kingdom of Spain. Its development coincides and frequently intersects wit ...

of the time, such as sex, homosexuality, and prostitution. Because of this, Alós had problems with Francoist censorship, but nevertheless several of her works were bestsellers in the 1960s and '70s.

Work

* ''Cuando la luna cambia de color'' (1958) – novel * ''Los enanos'' (1962) – novel * ''Los cien pájaros'' (1963) – novel * ''Las hogueras'' (1964) – novel (winner of the 13th

Premio Planeta The Premio Planeta de Novela is a Spanish literary prize, awarded since 1952 by the Spanish publisher Grupo Planeta to an original unpublished novel written in Spanish. It is one of about 16 literary prizes given by Planeta. Financially, it is the ...

) * ''El caballo rojo'' (1966) – novel * ''La madama'' (1969) – novel * ''Rey de Gatos. Narraciones antropófagas.'' (1972) – short stories * ''Os habla Electra'' (1975) – novel * ''Argeo ha muerto, supongo'' (1982) – novel * ''El asesino de los sueños'' (1986) – novel

Biography

Work

References

Further reading