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A dizzying, daring chronicle of the author’s life, a moving and emotional account of its trials, failures and triumphs. The narrator, with the intimacy of a diary, confronts the ghosts of his parents in the shadow of his divorce, his children and his career. With courage and honesty, blending reality with fiction, prose with poetic language, the author tells a story, crafting for himself an unforgettable character with whom – and this is his great achievement – we can identify.

As if there were anything else beyond a kiss. There is nothing else. The kiss that seals the passionate and unexpected love story between Salvador and Montserrat is born in the midst of the pandemic, in a country house deep in the forest, where Salvador, a fifty-eight-year-old professor, has found refuge. He meets Montserrat in a neighbouring village, on the outskirts of Madrid, where she works in the area’s only grocery shop. In March 2020, Salvador re-reads Don Quixote through the prism of his sense of the absolute, of the all-consuming passion that binds him to Montserrat. His unexpected Altisidora – as he likes to call her – emerges as an act of resistance during this time of enforced isolation. Until their past inevitably resurfaces, as the lovers’ routine becomes a reality. The Kisses is a great love story, tender and sensual, often funny and dramatic, in which the characters, in their intimacy, form a unique bond with the reader. The lovers’ skin, their carnal desire and their kisses are presented in an almost tangible way. Manuel Vilas offers a reflection on how, in the midst of a global crisis, two people try to find meaning where it seemingly does not exist. [Read what Nanna Papanikolaou wrote on our blog about the translation of the book.](https://ikarosbooks.gr/blog/nanna-papanikolaou-metafrazontas-ta-filia-tou-manuel-vilas)

Irene believes she had the most perfect marriage. Years of absolute devotion and passion. That is how she describes her relationship with Marcelo. Their bond surprised and puzzled their circle of friends: they were a couple who lived for one another as if every day were their first. With his death, her world shatters. To be able to move on, she will discover an unusual way to continue living by his side. A novel that explores the limits of love and the depths of a woman’s psyche trapped in a dangerous utopia, as loneliness imposes its own rules.