María Vallejo-Nágera or María Vallejo-Nágera Zóbel (born 6 May 1964) is a successful novelist in Spanish.

Life

Vallejo-Nágera was born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

in 1964 as the third daughter of the writer and María Victoria Zóbel de Ayala y Pfitz. Her grandfather is the controversial

Antonio Vallejo-Nájera Antonio Vallejo-Nájera (1889–1960) was a Spanish psychiatrist. He was interested in eugenics and proposed a link between Marxism and intellectual disability. His ideas led to the thefts of many Spanish newborns and young children from their left ...

. Her family is an important one in the Philippines. She is the cousin of Samantha and Nicolás Vallejo-Nágera "Colate", and niece of the painter Fernando Zóbel. She studied at the Colegio de Nuestra Señora de los Rosales, before going on to study teaching at Complutense University in four rather than the usual five years. Shortly after she married and had two twin daughters: Beatriz and Cristina, her husband's work took them to London. She used her time there writing children's stories. In the winter of 1997, while she was pregnant with her third son Gonzalo, she began writing her first novel ''In an Andalusian corner''. When she finished it, she looked for a place to publish it and sent it to 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Planeta de Novela is a Spanish literary prize, awarded since 1952 by the Spanish publisher Grupo Planeta to an original unpublished novel written in Spanish.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 ...

with the idea of going to the publishing house afterwards to ask for advice on how to improve it. Surprisingly the novel was selected as a finalist from four hundred submissions, being fifth in the final vote. In parallel with these events Vallejo-Nagera visited

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where she reported that she had received a re-conversion to the Catholic faith. She had been brought up as a Catholic but had moved away as she grew older. She reported later that this was a single spiritual event on 8 May 1999 although it was six months before she admitted it to a priest as she was worried that people might question her sanity. To prepare the publication of her book ''Women of Light'' , Maria attended a master's degree in leadership for people over fifty and three courses in theology and early Christianity at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. She was associated with Harvard's Advanced Leadership Initiative in 2017.

Selected works

* ''In an Andalusian corner'', 2000 * Black Moon: The light of Father Pateras, Barcelona, Belacqua, 2000 * The punishment of the angels, Barcelona, Planet, 2001 * A messenger at night: A chilling story based on a real event, Barcelona, Belacqua, 2003 * The nurse, Barcelona, Editions B, 2005 * The courtyard of silences, Barcelona, Styria, 2005 * Between the sky and the earth. Curious stories of purgatory. Barcelona, Planet, 2007 * Mala Tierra, Madrid, Citadel, 2009 * Lola Torbellino, Barcelona, Editions B, 2010 * Lola Whirlwind on the beach, Barcelona, Editions B, 2011 * Heaven and hell: truths of God, Madrid, Free Books, 2012 * From María to María: Puerta del cielo, Madrid, Word, 2014 * La Nodriza, 2014 * Juana Girl: The mystery of Cubas de la Sagra, Madrid, The sphere of Books, 2016 * Women of light, Barcelona, The sphere of books, 2018 * Walking through the sky, Madrid, Word, 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vallejo-Nagera, Maria 1964 births Living people Writers from Madrid 21st-century Spanish writers 21st-century Spanish women writers Harvard Divinity School alumni