The "Agustín de la Hoz" House of Culture in Arrecife was the setting chosen for the presentation of the novel by writer, artist and cultural manager Pepe Betancort.
This writer and researcher, originally from Arrecife, has won the II Novel Contest "La Balsa de Piedra Saramago" of the City Council of San Bartolomé with his work entitled Las perlas de Eufemia Montelongo. This novel tells the story of a young woman from Lanzarote who unexpectedly discovers a pearl inside a stupidity one morning, generating from that incident the development of a plot that is halfway between Hispanic-American magical realism and a costumbrista, luminous and Atlanticist vision of the territory of the eastern Canary Islands.
Pepe Betancort is the author of several narratives with intricate and humorous plots set in the geography of an unreal Arrecife, but at the same time irremediably common for its inhabitants. With Las perlas de Eufemia Montelongo, the author uses nonsense and humor as tools to reformulate the value of the beauty of a significant landscape of the Canary Islands. The novel features illustrations by Sergio Erro and a prologue by art historian and exhibition curator Amelia Álvarez de Mesa.
The large audience enjoyed an entertaining, fun and dynamic presentation, moderated by art historian, cultural manager and popularizer Estefanía Camejo, in which the writer, illustrator and cultural manager Lana Corujo, as well as the editor and publications coordinator Alba Cantón, also participated. Both in conversation with the author were unraveling all the intricacies of the novel.
Las Perlas de Eufemia Montelongo was the winning text of the contest organized by the City Council of San Bartolomé, developed in commemoration of the centenary of the Portuguese writer, based in Lanzarote, José Saramago and supported by the Canary Islands Institute of Cultural Development of the Government of the Canary Islands. The novel has been published by the Lanzarote-based label Itineraria, which has also published books such as the reissue of Lancelot 28º-7º Integral Guide to an Atlantic Island by Agustín Espinosa or La intuición de la isla (the days of José Saramago in Lanzarote) by Pilar del Río.
Las perlas de Eufemia Montelongo can now be purchased in any bookstore in Lanzarote and the Canary Islands. It is planned that in the coming weeks it will also be in the Peninsula.
