Laura Gallego García

Laura Gallego García (born in Quart de Poblet, Valencia (Spain) on 11 October 1977) is a Spanish author of young adult literature.

Biography

Laura Gallego García was born in Quart de Poblet, Valencia, on 11 October 1977. She is a Spanish novelist of children and juvenile literature, specializing in the fantasy genre. She studied Hispanic Philology at the University of Valencia.

Professional career

At age 11, she started writing ‘Zodiaccía, a different world’. She spent ten years finishing it and, although it has never been published, she has a special affection for this story. Then, she was sure about being a novelist and she sent her work to several literary contests for years.

At the age of 21, after finishing high school, she decided to study Hispanic Philology in the University of Valencia. She continued sending her work to publishing houses and contests but she did not publish anything until she wrote ‘Finis Mundi’, which was the first book she published. Previously, she wrote 13 books but none of them were brought to light. With ‘Finis Mundi’, the novelist won the ‘Barco de Vapor’ Prize in 1999 after having participated for several years. This contest is celebrated every year by SM publishing house.

After the publishing of her story 'Finis Mundi', she continued with other stories such as 'Mandrágora' or the tetralogy of 'Crónicas de la Torre'. However, although her fame is mainly due to her juvenile novel, she has also published stories aimed at children.

In 2002, she won this contest again, this time with her novel ‘La leyenda del rey errante’. In collaboration with SM publishing house, she has also published ‘El coleccionista de relojes extraordinarios’, the trilogy of ‘Memorias de Idhún’, ‘Donde los árboles cantan’, ‘Dos velas para el diablo’, the saga of ‘Crónicas de la Torre’ and ‘Las hijas de Tara’, this last one as part of the collection “Gran Angular”.

In 2004, she started publishing her second trilogy, called ‘Memorias de Idhún’ (Memorias de Idhún I: La Resistencia, Memorias de Idhún II: Tríada, Memorias de Idhún III: Panteón). This was her biggest success, with more than 750 000 copies sold.

She founded the university magazine ‘Náyade’, which was distributed by the Faculty of Philology at the University of Valencia. She was the co-director from 1997 to 2010.

Afterwards, she has published several independent books, most of them in the fantasy genre, as well as the second part of ‘Alas de fuego’, entitled ‘Alas negras’. She has also entered the realist literature with the serie «Sara y las goleadoras», which includes titles such as: ‘Creando equipo’, ‘Las chicas somos guerreras’, ‘Goleadoras en la liga’, ‘El fútbol y el amor son incompatibles’, ‘Las Goleadoras no se rinden’ and ‘El último gol’. Her novel ‘Donde los árboles cantan’, published in October 2011, won the ‘Premio Nacional de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil’ in 2012. Also, she has won the ‘Cervantes Chico’ Prize. That same year, she returned to children's literature with ‘Mago por casualidad’.

In March 2017, she published ‘Por una rosa’, a book that contains three stories written by three different novelists: Laura Gallego, Javier Ruescas and Benito Taibo. These are three stories set in the universe of the classic tale ‘Beauty and the Beast’.

Thematic style and characteristic

She has explored many of the literary subjects: she began with historical- fantasy literature with her story ‘Finis Mundi but also science-fiction with her story ‘Las hijas de Tara’. Later, she wrote about epic fantasy. This type of literature was reflected in her story ’Memorias de Idhún’. She has also written stories for children.

In her fantasy narrative, particularly with ‘Memorias de Idhún’, the theme of love is just as or more important than the fantasy theme. The characters constantly express their feelings, doubts, misgivings, disappointment, etc., and are guided by them, generally more so than other concepts such as honour or duty. This is what most differentiates her from novelists like Tolkien. Thus, reflection on one's own feeling occupies a lot of the space in the dialogues and the reproduction of thought. This fact is favoured by the decision to employ a passionate love triangle in his story ‘Memorias de Idhún’. She is inspired by some elements from the work of some novelists such as Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, particularly from their stories ‘La espada de Joram’, ‘Dragonlance’ and ‘El ciclo de la puerta de la muerte’.

Books

Her books have been translated into a multitude of languages: Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian and Swedish.

1999: Finis Mundi (Barco de Vapor Award, 1999)

2000: El Valle de los Lobos

2002: La maldición del Maestro

2003: La llamada de los muertos

2004: Fenris, el elfo

2004: Memorias de Idhún I: La Resistencia

2005: Memorias de Idhún II: Tríada

2006: Memorias de Idhún III: Panteón

2009: Sara y las goleadoras: Las chicas somos guerreras

2009: Sara y las goleadoras: Goleadoras en la liga

2010: Sara y las goleadoras: El fútbol y el amor son incompatibles

2010: Sara y las goleadoras: Las goleadoras no se rinden

2010: Sara y las goleadoras: El último gol

2001: El cartero de los sueños

2001: Retorno a la Isla Blanca

2002: Las hijas de Tara

2002: La leyenda del rey errante (Barco de Vapor Award, 2001)

2003: Mandrágora

2003: ¿Dónde está Alba?

2004: El coleccionista de relojes extraordinarios

2004: Alas de fuego

2004: La hija de la noche

2004: Max ya no hace reír

2004: Alba tiene una amiga muy especial

2005: El fantasma en apuros

2007: La emperatriz de los Etéreos

2008: Dos velas para el diablo

2009: Alas negras

2011: Dónde los árboles cantan

2012: Mago por casualidad

2013: El Libro de los Portales

2014: Enciclopedia de Idhún

2015: Todas las Hadas del Reino

2015: Héroes por casualidad

2016: Omnia: todo lo que puedas soñar

2017: Cuando me veas

2017: Por una rosa

2018: Guardianes de la Ciudadela: El bestiario de Axlin

2018 (2019 in the US): Guardianes de la Ciudadela: El secreto de Xein