Hostage and queen of the Visigoths. She was the daughter, wife and mother of emperors and even regent of the Roman Empire. Little is known about Gala Placidia, despite the fact that she has her own square in Barcelona, but Roberto Corral (Madrid, 1961), winner of the Edhasa prize for historical narratives, is willing to recover it. The Madrid author has traveled to Barcelona so that the jury could present him with the award for his work Gala de Hispania. Queen and slave, which can now be found in bookstores starting this Thursday.
“My wife Lourdes is the reason why I am here because for a long time I talked to her about Gala. I did it with passion. So much so that she encouraged me to choose this topic to write about and not others that she had in her bedside drawer. Corral has long been interested in this historical period. “We men like the Roman Empire and The Godfather,” he jokes.
The author claims Gala as “a woman with incredible personality and dignity, who knew how to carry them through her saddest moments.” She lived some of those most intense periods in Barcino, present-day Barcelona, because "it was here where her son died, her husband was murdered and she became a slave."
Corral regrets that, despite the importance and weight it had in history, there is not much documentation about it although, on the other hand, "that allows me to fictionalize some passages."
