La Ciutat Invisible

by Emili Rosales

Novel·la guanyadora del Premi Sant Jordi 2004

La Ciutat Invisible és una novel·la d'aventura personal i de misteri històric. Té com a rerefons una inconfessable història d'amor i com a desencadenant l'avidesa que provoca la suposada existència d'un quadre perdut de l'últim gran mestre de la pintura italiana, Giambattista Tiepolo. Tant un motiu com l'altre ens duen del present més rabiós al segle xviii, rere la pista dels plans avui oblidats i quasi secrets del rei Carles III de crear una gran ciutat al delta de l'Ebre, a imatge de Sant Petersburg -la ciutat ideal erigida a la desembocadura del Neva-, sota l'emmirallament de Nàpols i la seva badia, potser de Venècia i els seus canals, i en el context d'una cort il·lustrada, que va atreure músics, arquitectes i pintors de tot Europa.
Una novel·la fascinant que ens commou i que ens aboca a uns episodis que haurien pogut canviar la nostra història.

Genres: Historical, Spanish Literature

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Iulia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I chose to read this because of its promising premise, but in the end the result wasn't that thrilling. I was more interested in the historical parts of the book and I didn't find the present very interesting.

[Kalika · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of the book is quite interesting and it is billed as a "literary thriller". I enjoyed the story, especially the memoirs of the neoclassical Italian Architect. But the mystery ("why did all work on the new city planned by Charles III stop abruptly? What and where was 'THE Tiepolo'? Who was Emili's father?") in the end wasn't very thrilling and was fairly obvious. The Invisible City won one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the Catalan language in 2004, so my expectations were high I guess.

[Moraig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The intrigue of a new Spanish city commissioned by Bourbon King Charles III, a mysterious manuscript and the tantalising secret of a yet undiscovered painting by Tiepolo had me hooked. Although I loved the premise, I was disappointed by the book's slow start, and it wasn't until around page 50 that the story grabbed me. It's certainly worth a read and contains some wonderful description and dropped me into the intrigues of the Italian, Russian and Spanish courts in the 1700s.

[Natalie Reiss · Rating 1 out of 5]

I rarely give up on a book, but this one didn't capture my interest. I envisioned a Da Vinci code type plot, but I didn't find that to be the case at all.

[Jeannette · Rating 2 out of 5]

In my opinion, this was no "literal thriller" and was extremely boring.

[Victòria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una novel·la densa i plena de fets històrics. Sóc conscient de la gran obra d'investigació i de documentació que hi ha al darrera, és per això que he decidit puntuar-lo amb 4 de les 5 estrelles. A més a més perquè parla del lloc on he crescut, un lloc sovint oblidat. I també perquè és agradable de vegades de llegir una història que hagi succeït en un lloc més corrent, i no a les típiques Londres, Nova York o Barcelona. Té una mica de misteri, un gir molt inesperat i una crítica bastant realista al sistema polític d'ara i d'abans. Tot i que no és una lectura gaire lleugera, ha valgut la pena llegir-lo fins al final perquè m'ha fet aprendre un munt de coses de l'Europa del segle xviii.

[Irreverent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Està molt ben escrit amb paratges molt poètics. No obstant, crec que cap al final perd pistonada; la trama es marceix i els diàlegs entre personatges es tornen una mica més acartonats. I el clímax no està a l’alçada de les expectatives que genera al principi de la novel·la.
Així i tot, trobo molt interessant el rerefons històric que sembla sortir d’un exhaustiu estudi de l’època.
M’animaré a llegir els altres llibres de l’autor perquè és difícil trobar prosa ben escrita.

[Jeroen Van de Crommenacker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice little book. Easy reading with a sprinkling of Spanish history.

[Josep Mitjavila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Curiosa història de la Sant Petersburg catalana ideada per un rei espanyol amb la col·laboració d’un arquitecte italià.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure who this book would appeal to especially. I'm tempted to suggest the Da Vinci Code Brigade but since I've neither read the book nor seen the film I could be wrong. Art is important in the book as is architecture but you don't need to know that much about them to get the idea what's going on. If I did have one major criticism, and this is something that Agatha Christie is guilty of, the novel's readers are deprived of one major clue right up until the big reveal at the end. This is annoying but I got over it because by that point I was dead keen to get to the solution which, as most solutions are, is fairly obvious once you think about it. The trouble is hindsight is a great thing.

You can read a full review on my blog here

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

King Charles III envisioned building a second capital city and put his dream in writing. An architect ends up possessing this masterpiece and brings it to a gallery for Emili to take a look at. It turns out that the setting for the second capital city is the same place Emili used to play in when he was young. Emili is soon sucked into this unknown world and will be forever changed because of it.

I was instantly hooked because this is a fabulous book! Emili is an extremely talented story-teller.

[sanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

i didn't finish it , i think this book was just not my kind of book