Website of writer Núria Añó

CATALÀ Els nens de l'Elisa, L'escriptora morta, Núvols baixos, La mirada del fill

ESPAÑOL La escritora muerta, Nubes bajas, La mirada del hijo, El salón de los artistas exiliados en California, Los niños de Elisa

FRANÇAIS L'écrivaine morte, Le regard du fils, Nuages bas, Le salon des artistes exilés en Californie, Les garçons d'Elisa

SVENSKA Exilkonstnärernas salong i Kalifornien

PORTUGUÊS O Olhar do Filho, A Escritora Morta, Nuvens baixas, O Salão dos Artistas Exilados na Califórnia, Os Meninos de Elisa

NEDERLANDS De dode schrijfster, De blik van de zoon, De salon van artiesten in ballingschap in Californië

ENGLISH The Dead Writer, Lowering Clouds, The Salon of Exiled Artists in California

DEUTSCH Der Blick des Sohnes, Tiefe Wolken, Die Tote Schriftstellerin, Der Salon der Exilkünstler in Kalifornien

ITALIANO La scrittrice morta, Nuvole basse, Lo sguardo del figlio, Il salone degli artisti esiliati in California

ELLINIKA To vlemma tou yiou, I nekri singrapheas, To salóni ton exóriston kallitechnón stin Kalifórnia, Hamila sinefa, Ta paidia tis Elisas

THE SALON OF EXILED ARTISTS IN CALIFORNIA, Núria Añó. Translated by Joannes W. M. Groenewege

"The Salon of Exiled Artists in California" is a biography of Salka Viertel, a Jewish actress who emigrated to Hollywood and was popularly known as the screenwriter of the Swedish actress Greta Garbo. Besides, she had a salon in Santa Monica, California, which was attended by a large part of the European intelligentsia in exile. Salka was a very modern and interesting woman for her time who should be recognized as such.

The book deals with topics such as Salka Viertel's alleged bisexuality and the number of friends she had, to name but a few: Albert Einstein, Charles Chaplin, Sergei Eisenstein, F. W. Murnau, Max Reinhardt, Arnold Schönberg, Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Greta Garbo, Montgomery Clift... Also, like Gertrude Stein and other notorious women, she had her literary salon through which writers like Truman Capote, Christopher Isherwood, Gore Vidal and many other writers passed. Other themes she covers are the Berlin of the 1920s; the transition from silent to spoken film, as seen from the Mecca of Hollywood. Then, the rise of Hitler and what it meant for the Jewish condition; the exile of those intellectuals who could not return to their respective countries because of the Second World War. Later, the Cold War and the witch-hunt against communism. The truth is that the background to the life of Salka Viertel and her circle of friends encompasses the great events of the 20th century.

With this project, the author was awarded the Shanghai Writing Program (China, 2016) and the Baltic Centre (Sweden, 2017) residency grants.

"A very interesting story and I think even in these very current times since in my eyes we have not made much progress on the issue of acceptance of 'interpersonal feelings' in general. A great and extremely interesting book about Hollywood in the thirties and forties about the influence of artists from European countries such as Germany, Austria, France, Sweden, England, Ukraine and others. An extensive and high-quality research project resulting in an in-depth account of many well-known and famous personalities and their interpersonal relationships."-Joannes W. M. Groenewege, translator

"Even though Salka Viertel was such a pivotal figure in the exile community very little has been written about her, so Núria Añó's book is a corrective, and she fills in many of the gaps of 'The Kindness of Strangers'" -Dialog International

"I greatly enjoyed working on the translation of this biography about the life of an influential but little-studied actress and writer of the 20th century. Before starting this project, I had not heard of Salka Viertel, which is surprising considering her impact on Hollywood and on Greta Garbo, one of Sweden’s national prides. The book not only provides a detailed account of Salka’s life, but also addresses themes of sexuality, exile, survival, and art, spanning from the Weimar Republic in Germany to McCarthyism in the United States. Today, with the growing interest in bringing to light the often-overlooked lives of women and queer people who have shaped history and modern media, this book is both illustrative and enlightening." -Catherine Wray, Translator

ESPAÑOL (EL SALÓN DE LOS ARTISTAS EXILIADOS EN CALIFORNIA) 2020 ISBN: 9780463996102 (eBook); 9781658631631 (Paperback); 2021 ISBN: 9798744718015 (Hardcover)

ENGLISH (THE SALON OF EXILED ARTISTS IN CALIFORNIA: Salka Viertel Took in Actors, Prominent Intellectuals and Anonymous People in Exile Fleeing From Nazism) 2020 ISBN: 9780463206126 (eBook); 9798647624079 (Paperback); 2021 ISBN: 9798734626528 (Hardcover)

GREEK (To salóni ton exóriston kallitechnón stin Kalifórnia) 2020 ISBN: 9781071555637 (eBook)

DEUTSCH (DER SALON DER EXILKÜNSTLER IN KALIFORNIEN) 2020 ISBN: 9781071576700 (eBook); ISBN: 9781071579206 (Paperback)

PORTUGUÊS (O SALÃO DOS ARTISTAS EXILADOS NA CALIFÓRNIA) 2021 ISBN: 9781071590218 (eBook); ISBN:9781667413747 (Paperback)

FRANÇAIS (LE SALON DES ARTISTES EXILÉS EN CALIFORNIE) 2021 ISBN: 9781071596869 (eBook); ISBN: 9781667413754 (Paperback)

ITALIANO (IL SALONE DEGLI ARTISTI ESILIATI IN CALIFORNIA) 2021 ISBN: 9781667410739 (eBook); ISBN: 9781667413747 (Paperback)

NEDERLANDS (DE SALON VAN ARTIESTEN IN BALLINGSCHAP IN CALIFORNIË) NEW! 2022 ISBN: 9781667425467 (eBook); 9781667425504 (Paperback)

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Reading | Biography excerpt of 'The Salon of Exiled Artists in California', by Núria Añó

The Salon of Exiled Artists in California

About the Author

Núria Añó is a Catalan/Spanish writer, translator and speaker at international conferences, where she usually talks about literary creation, the cinema, cities or authors like Elfriede Jelinek, Patricia Highsmith, Salka Viertel, Alexandre Dumas fils, Franz Werfel or Karen Blixen. She has shown her work at the following universities and institutions: University of Lleida (UdL), Tunis University, University of Jaén (UJA), International University of Andalucia (UNIA), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC-Madrid), The Sysmän Kirjasto Library in Finland, The Shanghai Writers’ Association (SWA), Fudan University in China, The East China Normal University, Sinan Mansion, The Instituto Cervantes in Shanghai, the Conrad Festival in Poland, the Massolit Bookshop, Bar Bazza and the Instituto Cervantes in Krakow along with other libraries and secondary or higher education establishments. She is also a member of various juries at international competitions. Some of her works—including novels, short stories and essays—have been published and translated into Spanish, French, English, Italian, German, Polish, Chinese, Latvian, Portuguese, Dutch and Greek.

Her first published novel Els nens de l’Elisa (Omicron, 2006) was awarded third prize in the 24th Ramon Llull Novel Award, one of the most prestigious awards for Catalan literature, awarded by Editorial Planeta. L’escriptora morta ([The Dead Writer, 2020] Omicron) was published in 2008; Núvols baixos ([Lowering Clouds, 2020] Omicron) in 2009; La mirada del fill (Abadia) in 2012; El salón de los artistas exiliados en California ([The Salon of Exiled Artists in California], 2020), a biography on Jewish screenwriter Salka Viertel.

Her writing centres around the characters’ psychology, often through the use of anti-heroes. The characters are what stands out most about her work; they are more relevant than the topic itself. With an introspection, a reflection, not sentimental, but feminine, she finds a unique balance between the marginal worlds of parallels. Her novels are open to a wide variety of topics, they deal with important social and current themes like injustice or lack of communication between individuals. The basic plot of her novels does not tell you everything there is to know. By using this method, Añó attempts to involve the reader so that they ask their own questions to discover the deeper meaning of the content.

Núria won the 18th Joan Fuster Prize for Fiction Ciutat d’Almenara, fourth place for international writing at the 2018 Shanghai get-Together and has been awarded with prestigious international grants: NVL (Finland, 2016), SWP (China, 2016), BCWT (Sweden, 2017), IWTCR (Greece, 2017), UNESCO City of Literature (Poland, 2018), IWTH (Latvia, 2019) and IWP (China, 2020). For a more detailed background of the author, visit her webpage www.nuriaanyo.com/en-lectur.html.