Here, and in Tretze tristos tràngols (2008) (Thirteen Bad Patches), the short story genre allows him to develop his own literary landscapes through use of fantasy elements and eccentric characters who experience surprising- sometimes bizarre -situations. In Les edats d’or (2001) (The Golden Ages), Sánchez Piñol presents us with the changes in fortune in the lives of eleven memorable - some more so than others - protagonists, revealing the author’s fascination with the human condition. Sánchez Piñol’s short story in the volume gives the work -which has never been translated into Catalan- its title. In the same year Compagnie difficili was published in Italy, a work he wrote in collaboration with one of the quintessential writers of the Sardinian literary spring: the much revered Marcello Fois. This publication, translated into Spanish and Italian, marked his first publishing contract with Isabel Martí’s publishing house, La Campana, with whom he has maintained a successful relationship ever since.
His first published work was Pallassos i monstres (2000) (Clowns and Monsters), a satirical essay which brings together the biographies of eight African dictators and analyses clearly and critically - the postcolonial situation in sub-Saharan Africa. For a short time he even worked for an insurance company: an experience so tedious he reproduced it in a short story.
He is currently a regular columnist in the Catalan newspaper Ara.īefore finding fame with La pell Freda (2002) (Cold Skin), Sánchez Piñol wrote encyclopaedias, entered local writing competitions and worked as a ghost writer.
His doctoral thesis research was cut short by the outbreak of the country’s civil war but the shadow of what he learnt stretches over his stories and has become one of the great defining features of his literature. He is a member of the Centre for African Studies and has undertaken numerous field trips to the Congo to study Pygmies. Albert Sánchez Piñol (Barcelona, 1965) abandoned his Law degree and studied Anthropology at the University of Barcelona.
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