Juan Gómez-Jurado
Encyclopedia
Juan Gómez-Jurado is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
) is an award-winning Spanish journalist and bestselling author. Currently, he is a columnist in "La Voz de Galicia," and "ABC", distributed in Spain, and he participates in several radio and TV programs. Translated into 42 languages, Gómez-Jurado is one of the most successful contemporary Spanish authors of all time along with New York Times bestselling authors Javier Sierra
Javier Sierra
Javier Sierra Albert is a journalist, writer and researcher who studied journalism at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He is editor consultant of the monthly magazine Más Allá de la Ciencia distributed in Spain and Latin America and he participates in several radio and television programs...
and Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Carlos Ruiz Zafón is a Spanish novelist who has lived in Los Angeles since 1993, where he spent a few years writing scripts whilst developing his career as a writer....
. His writing has been widely described by critics as "energetic and cinematographic".
Gómez-Jurado worked in many the most important Spanish media, like 40 Principales, Cadena Ser, Cadena Cope, Radio España, Canal + and ABC, before hitting the bestseller lists throughout the world with God's Spy
God's Spy
God's Spy is a 2007 bestselling thriller novel by Juan Gómez-Jurado originally published in Spain . It has become an instant bestseller throughout Europe with a million copies sold to date and is going to be published in 42 countries...
(Espía de Dios), his first novel. An instant bestseller in Spain, with rights sold in 42 countries to date and more than a million copies sold, God’s Spy is a contemporary thriller set in the Vatican, where, in the aftermath of Pope John Paul II’s death, the hunt for a serial killer reveals a chilling conspiracy.
On 27 September 2008, Gómez-Jurado won the prestigious Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja
Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja
The Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja is a Spanish literary prize, awarded since 2001 by the publisher Plaza & Janés to an original unpublished novel written in Spanish...
for his latest novel The Traitor's Emblem
The Traitor's Emblem
The Traitor's Emblem is a 2011 bestselling thriller novel by Juan Gómez-Jurado originally published in Spain. It has become an instant bestseller throughout Europe with more a million copies sold to date, topping the bestsellers list for weeks, and is being translated into 45 languages. The plot is...
. The plot is set in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
after the First World War, a thriller that begins one night in 1941 aboard a patrol Spanish ship at the Gibraltar Strait, where Captain González ends rescuing the only survivors from a shipwreck whom he manages to take to the coast of Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. The shipwrecked Germans, as a token of their gratitude, present Captain González with a gold emblem, and two words the German leader of the rescued lot will remember for all his life and throughout the novel: "treason" and "salvation". This novel is being translated into 40 languages and will be published in July 2011 in the USA. Kirkus Reviews praised "The traitor's emblem": "riveting thriller with a redeeming love story".
Books and literature
- The Traitor's EmblemThe Traitor's EmblemThe Traitor's Emblem is a 2011 bestselling thriller novel by Juan Gómez-Jurado originally published in Spain. It has become an instant bestseller throughout Europe with more a million copies sold to date, topping the bestsellers list for weeks, and is being translated into 45 languages. The plot is...
(Atria, 2011). Munich, 1919. After his family fall into disgrace, 15-year-old Paul Reiner and his mother work as servants in the palace of Baron Von Schroeder. Unhappy and full of despair, Paul dreams of the heroic father he never knew. But one night, seconds before committing suicide, Paul's cousin reveals a terrible secret. Paul's father didn't die in the First World War, as he had always been told. He was killed by someone very close to him, and for unclear reasons. This discovery turns Paul's world upside down and from that moment, Paul sacrifices everything to discover the truth behind his father's death, even his love for Alys Tannenbaum, a Jewish photographer who helps him on his dangerous pursuit. Together they fight for their love, the truth behind Paul's family and the vengeance of Paul's cousin who rises to become a high-ranking Nazi and on Hitler's orders and successfully infiltrates the Mason organization to root out their Jewish members.
- The Moses ExpeditionThe Moses ExpeditionThe Moses Expedition is a 2010 bestselling thriller novel by Juan Gómez-Jurado originally published in Spain. The book topped the bestselling list in Europe and some of the American lists such as Amazon´s, having sold 1.5 million copies to date...
(Atria, 2010) A lost treasure, a Nazi war criminal, and a lifelong quest to find a missing heirloom are the starting points for this novel in which Gomez-Jurado uses the thriller genre to portray the brutal face of prejudice, racism, and bigotry, deftly showing how humans create enemies. A mysterious CIA operative and member of the Vatican's secret service pays a visit to a war criminal living under a pseudonym because of the terrible experiments he performed on Jewish children. The operative offers him a deal—he will not reveal the man's true identity in exchange for a huge candle covered in fine filigree gold. But it is not the gold the agent is after—it is the metallic object preserved within the wax, a missing fragment of an ancient map. Soon the reader is involved in an expedition to Jordan set up by the enigmatic head of Kayn industries, a reclusive billionaire who has links to the highest levels of the Catholic Church. But there is a traitor in the group who has links to terrorist organisations back in the US, and who is patiently awaiting the moment to strike. From wartime Vienna to terrorist cells in New York and a lost valley in Jordan, The Moses Expedition is about a quest for power and the secrets of an ancient world.
- God's SpyGod's SpyGod's Spy is a 2007 bestselling thriller novel by Juan Gómez-Jurado originally published in Spain . It has become an instant bestseller throughout Europe with a million copies sold to date and is going to be published in 42 countries...
(Dutton, 2007), English translation of Espía de Dios by James GrahamJames Graham-British noblemen:*James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose , Scottish nobleman and soldier*James Graham, 2nd Marquess of Montrose *James Graham, 3rd Marquess of Montrose...
. The novel takes place in the days following the death of Pope John Paul II, when 115 cardinals have to be called to the VaticanVatican CityVatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
in order to take part in the ConclavePapal conclaveA papal conclave is a meeting of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a Bishop of Rome, who then becomes the Pope during a period of vacancy in the papal office. The Pope is considered by Roman Catholics to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and earthly head of the Roman Catholic Church...
to elect the new Pope. With RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
under siege to foreign press and thousands of mourners, the last thing it needs is a serial killerSerial killerA serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
on the loose. Paola Dicanti is a profiler who works with the Italian police—she has been put in charge of profiling serial killers in a department of one i.e. herself. She is untested and her experience of serial killers is, as yet, theoretical. This is until she is called to the church of Santa Maria in the Vatican state. A cardinal has been found murdered, his eyes destroyed, his hands cut off. It seems that this is not the first victim—another cardinal was found in similar circumstances but the authorities did not want a scandal. Recovering from a bitter affair with her boss, Paola begins to build her profile using information from the scene of the crime, from the autopsy, and from forensic evidence. She is helped in this by Anthony Fowler, a priest from the States. But it turns out that Fowler is no ordinary priest—he clearly has links to the CIA, and knows a lot about the serial killer than Dicanti could ever have guessed. The situation is complicated further when a young female journalist intercepts tapes that were meant to be sent to the press, putting her life in danger. - La Masacre de Virginia Tech: Anatomía de una mente torturada (El Andén, 2007): On 15 July 2007, Gómez-Jurado was in the United States at the time of the Virginia Tech shooting and traveled to Blacksburg to compile his experiences in a text for publication initially in a Spanish newspaper. When the newspaper rejected his text for being excessively long even for a serial publication, Gómez-Jurado decided to publish it in book form “so that the voices, the suffering of the victims, were not limited a list and a number”.
- Identidad Secreta (Lago Ediciones, 2007), an anthology of his columns on International Affairs.
- Otras voces (Alfaguara, 1996), an anthology of short stories.
Controversy and media reaction
There were several very controversial issues in Spain relating to God's SpyGod's Spy
God's Spy is a 2007 bestselling thriller novel by Juan Gómez-Jurado originally published in Spain . It has become an instant bestseller throughout Europe with a million copies sold to date and is going to be published in 42 countries...
. The main reason is that the antagonist, Viktor Karoski, is a serial killer, pedophile priest. In the book there is a highly detailed portrait of Saint Matthew's Institute, a carbon copy
Carbon copy
Carbon copying, abbreviated cc or c.c., is the technique of using carbon paper to produce one or more copies simultaneously during the creation of paper documents...
of a real institution in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
based, as well) dedicated to the rehabilitation of sex-offender priests. Some catholic organizations in Spain and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
protested against the novel because of this. In both countries, nonetheless, the main reaction of the critics was fairly favourable to the novel. In the USA the reviews were positive. Booklist
Booklist
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. It is geared toward libraries and booksellers and is available in print or online...
, i. e., praised the book as a "First-rate thriller".
Personal life and Philantropy
Juan Gómez-Jurado is married and lives in MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, with his wife and two children. After his wife being diagnosed with cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, Gómez-Jurado became an activist to fighting colon cancer. He is also an ambassador of Save The Children
Save the Children
Save the Children is an internationally active non-governmental organization that enforces children's rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries...
. He led campaigns as "1 libro 1 euro", a website in which Internet users can download books in exchange of a voluntary donation to Save the Children.
List of works
- Espía de Dios ("God's Spy", a novel), Roca Editorial, 2006, Spain. (Translated to English, Danish, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Italian, German, Serbian Dutch and Finnish.
- La masacre de Virginia Tech ("The Virginia Tech Massacre", a chronicle), El Anden, 2007, Spain.
- Contrato con Dios ("Contract with God", a novel), El Anden, 2007, Spain.
- El emblema del traidor, Plaza & Janés, 2008, Spain. Winner of the 2008 Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja.
Awards and nominations
- VII Premio de Novela Ciudad de TorreviejaPremio de Novela Ciudad de TorreviejaThe Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja is a Spanish literary prize, awarded since 2001 by the publisher Plaza & Janés to an original unpublished novel written in Spanish...
, The Traitor's EmblemThe Traitor's EmblemThe Traitor's Emblem is a 2011 bestselling thriller novel by Juan Gómez-Jurado originally published in Spain. It has become an instant bestseller throughout Europe with more a million copies sold to date, topping the bestsellers list for weeks, and is being translated into 45 languages. The plot is... - International Latino Book Awards 2011, Best Adventure Novel, The Moses ExpeditionThe Moses ExpeditionThe Moses Expedition is a 2010 bestselling thriller novel by Juan Gómez-Jurado originally published in Spain. The book topped the bestselling list in Europe and some of the American lists such as Amazon´s, having sold 1.5 million copies to date...
- International Latino Book Awards 2011, Best Popular Fiction Novel, The Moses ExpeditionThe Moses ExpeditionThe Moses Expedition is a 2010 bestselling thriller novel by Juan Gómez-Jurado originally published in Spain. The book topped the bestselling list in Europe and some of the American lists such as Amazon´s, having sold 1.5 million copies to date...
- Nominated to CrimeFest's eDunnit Award, The Moses ExpeditionThe Moses ExpeditionThe Moses Expedition is a 2010 bestselling thriller novel by Juan Gómez-Jurado originally published in Spain. The book topped the bestselling list in Europe and some of the American lists such as Amazon´s, having sold 1.5 million copies to date...