A Lucky Life. Memoirs of Fernando Schwartz

The writer, diplomat, TV presenter, and Planeta Prize winner unravels his biography and personality with irony and intelligence.

In this account of his life, Fernando Schwartz travels across five continents, changes jobs more than once, falls in love, rides his motorcycle, and reaches Vietnam and Bora Bora. He witnesses the transition and the weaknesses of leaders. He writes, winning the Planeta Novel Prize and several others, and publishes 22 books, including novels and essays. He skis in remote locations, sails, and works on television. Stage after stage, he establishes friendships with the most diverse people: Felipe González and Margaret Thatcher, Salman Rushdie and José Saramago, Lou Reed and Joaquín Sabina, Jean Reno and Sara Baras, the Dalai Lama and King Juan Carlos, Jodie Foster and Umberto Eco, Shirley Maclaine and Sara Montielli, Frances MacDormand and Penélope Cruz. With all of them, he establishes relationships of trust, if not solid friendship.

With his style, sometimes casual, sometimes serious, always ironic, he is an exceptional witness to a very interesting period in Spain's recent history.

Born in Geneva in 1937, Fernando Schwartz was Spanish ambassador three times, won the Planeta Novel Prize in 1996 with El desencuentro , and is the author of more than twenty books. He hosted a program, Lo+Plus, which has been a benchmark on Spanish television. He has lived in many countries; he now resides with his wife in Mallorca, where he chats with friends and surfs the web.