Los Príncipes Nubios

by Juan Bonilla

Moisés Froissard se dedica a salvar vidas. Trabaja de «cazador» para el Club Olimpo, una macroempresa con una intrincada red internacional que actúa en las zonas depauperadas del mundo, en los lugares donde se ha producido un desastre natural o una guerra, y en las costas cuando es apresado un nuevo contingente de pateras abarrotadas de inmigrantes. Él selecciona y rescata a los ejemplares más bellos de entre los supervivientes del infortunio y la inmigración, y el Club se encarga de someterlos a un laborioso proceso de reeducación y lavado de imagen para convertirlos en máquinas sexuales, capaces de satisfacer los deseos de clientes ricos y caprichosos.

Audaz y corrosiva desde la idea inicial hasta su resolución, Los príncipes nubios sumerge al lector en un espectáculo sobrecogedor, una visión descarnada y cruel de cómo las formas de explotación se adaptan a los nuevos tiempos.

Juan Bonilla regresa a la novela dosificando humor negro y acción en una narración de inquietante actualidad galardonada con el Premio Biblioteca Breve 2003. El jurado quiso destacar «la creación de un personaje insólito dentro de una profunda ambigüedad moral y la acritud y lucidez con que describe un aspecto extremadamente conflictivo de la sociedad de nuestros días».

Genres: Fiction, Spain

290 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Juan Bonilla is a Spanish writer whose work spans fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, earning him recognition as one of the most versatile voices in contemporary Spanish literature. He first gained attention with short story collections such as Tanta gente sola and Una manada de ñus, while as a novelist he achieved success with Nadie conoce a nadie, later adapted into a film, and Los príncipes nubios, winner of the Premio Biblioteca Breve and later acclaimed internationally. His biography of Terenci Moix, La vida es un sueño pop, was awarded the Premio Gaziel de Biografías y Memorias, and his novel Prohibido entrar sin pantalones, inspired by Vladimir Mayakovsky, earned the prestigious Bienal de Novela Vargas Llosa Prize. In 2019, Bonilla published Totalidad sexual del cosmos, a novel about Mexican artist and muse Nahui Olin, which won the Spanish National Book Award in 2020. His poetry has been collected in Hecho en falta, and several of his works have been translated into English, further broadening his readership.

Reviews

[Kalliope · Rating 4 out of 5]

My read of Prohibido entrar sin pantalones had been highly enjoyable and since I am in the lookout for contemporary Spanish writers – with not much success – I went on the search of more books by Bonilla. Disconcertingly, editions of Spanish books are limited; they go out of print quickly. This I ordered from a second-hand seller in the US - it belonged to Livermore Public Library. Then, when I received it, I was not sure I really was interested in the theme. From the cover it deals with current illegal immigration from Africa. A subject of paramount importance, socially, ethically, but that in literature could easily derive into either a sentimental and simplistic account or into an elucidation loaded with stereotypes.

Moisés Froissard Calderón, the narrator and protagonist, introduces himself as someone who used to “save lives”. This is his story. By saving lives he means catching illegal immigrants arriving from Africa to the Spanish coasts and enrolling them into a sophisticated and international network of expensive and very beautiful prostitutes.

Anything could come out of that premise, but Bonilla has a knack for mixing the serious and the compassionate with a humorous and farcical tone that has speckles of a surreal magic realism, with a clever use of elements of ridicule, resulting in a very entertaining and funny read.

If to this you add literary meditations that are never pedantic but that separate the novel from a purely social-denunciation novel, then the work becomes distinct from a pamphlet. On these there is humour too. The narrator several times appeals to his wish he had an “omniscient narrator” who would clarify things to him – in the story, and then, of course, in his life, since the novel is his life. As a child, when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, his answer would be “omniscient narrator”. That there is a dog called “omniscient narrator” does not help – and it is done away with. Moisés also has recourse to Stephen King and to a couple of his literary recommendations for account-makers. King advices that any narration have three components: the story that must take the reader from A to Z; the description that has to create a sensorial reality; and finally the dialogue that will bring the characters to life. But then any story must be the account of a transformation.

And one could say that this transformation is the foundation of this story – not just that of “saving lives”, but also of the Narrator, Moisés. And this he does in the end when finding a way out to a couple of Africans, he finds his own path of what had become hell.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness...I've never read a book quite as disturbing as this before...both horrific and damn funny about a subject that even the book jacket says "is immune to humor" I'm gonna have to think about this for a minute before assigning stars or writing a review or even deciding if I liked it. Rhetorical question:..can you give a book 5 stars for its truly unique subject and treatment and still not "like" it?

OK..I'm gonna be thinking about this piece of trash for a very long time...How T.. F... can you make sex slavery funny? Whats rational about immigrant, including children, sexual exploitation? Not much. But what if the alternative is death or life long imprisonment and torture?

After buying into the absurdity of an NGO that had the mission of bringing a smile to the resident children of Bolivia's garbage dumps though clowns and puppetry and realizing the the true purpose of the protagonist was to save them by selling them into slavery I literally felt ill and tossed the book aside. But I realized that no author would waste the first 50 pages setting up a comedic premise only to wallow in smut for the rest of the 200..so I read on. Somehow the protagonist...the tale is told from a "coyote" point of view..he is "saving" people and the rationalization of the sex industry actually becomes plausible and through the course of the book Western hypocrisy is indicted, A hypocrisy which commodifies sex, even of children, on a much grander scale. The protagonist never gets redeemed, the exploited never get to be in control, the powers that be never get a comeuppance. Just like life.

I would recommend this book to no one. I would recommend this book to every one. Don't blame me.


If this bit of fiction is anywhere near what goes on in the African immigrant communities in Western Europe and by projection the North American ones....lets hope we are not judged by the blind eye we turn

[Naeem · Rating 1 out of 5]

The sex industry, the problem of world poverty, and "illegal" immigration are the topics of this novel. He is not nearly as hard hitting or interesting as the writer of the Platform or as compassionate as Burdett's three novels on Bangkok.

This book is what happens when a writer cannot climb out of his own commitment to Europeaness. We get a novel about serious issues but lacking even a trace of pathos, compassion, or insight. What a waste.

[André · Rating 4 out of 5]

Citaat : 'Het zal je nog moeite kosten hem goed te laten functioneren’ waarschuwde ik haar. ‘Hij zal alleen sessies met vrouwen willen accepteren en je vrouwelijk cliëntenbestand is niet groot genoeg om de operatie rendabel te maken. Zelfs niet als je de sessie op vijfduizend euro zet.’
Review : De Nubische prins is een aangrijpend boek dat de tegenstellingen tussen arm en rijk in al zijn facetten pijnlijk blootlegt. Mensenhandel, immigratie en hypocrisie zijn de belangrijkste onderwerpen.
Het verhaal introduceert Moises Froissard Calderon, een premiejager die altijd op zoek is naar de mooiste lijven die hij kan gebruiken als model of stripper. Zijn vangsten krijgen een riant salaris waarvoor ze wel hun seksuele diensten moeten verlenen aan leden van Club Olympus, een wereldwijde groep hooggeplaatste politici en rijke zakenlieden. Voor zijn opdrachtgeefster, La Doctora, heeft Moises alles over. Als jager reist hij bijvoorbeeld naar Argentinië. Daar heerst een economische crisis, wat impliceert dat de mooiste mensen snel geronseld kunnen worden. Scrupules heeft Moises niet. En zou hij ze hebben dan houdt hij zichzelf voor dat hij zich inzet voor de mensheid. Zijn motto is: ‘Ik red de mensen’. Maar wat is dat als je als Afrikaanse vluchteling aanspoelt en maar één keuze hebt: teruggestuurd worden of als moderne slaaf je lichaam verkopen? Het is maar wat je onder gered worden verstaat. Dit verhaal gaat over een prachtige man, de Nubische prins, die Calderon voor een geobsedeerde klant van Olympus moet opsporen. De Nubische prins is in Europa beland nadat hij uit zijn land, vlakbij Soedan, is verdreven.

Deze doorwrochten roman zal voor vele lezers een wereld tonen die op het eerste gezicht vol karikaturen lijkt te zijn, maar helaas zijn deze personages angstaanjagend echt. De realiteit in de prostitutie is nog vele malen erger, als je er wetenschappelijke literatuur op naleest.


Juan Bonilla is in de Latijnse wereld een van de grote namen uit de hedendaagse Spaanse literatuur. Voor deze roman kreeg hij dan ook zeer terecht de Spaanse literatuurprijs.
In prachtige volzinnen vertelt de auteur een verhaal dat je koude rillingen bezorgt.
Als illegaal (man of vrouw) over een aantrekkelijk lichaam beschikken kan voordelen maar ook veel nadelen hebben.

Een wrang en hard boek dat niemand onberoerd kan laten.
Het cynisme en de bijtende humor van de auteur verhogen het schokeffect nog meer, maar onderlijnen ook zijn enorme schrijverscapaciteiten!

[Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me pareció una historia interesante que profundiza por partes la vida dura de personas "que no tienen opciones" para salir del infierno donde viven.
El personaje principal por ratos depresivo, intenta entender por qué terminó en el lugar donde está.
Personajes interesantes y un final un poco chocante a mi parecer.

¡Recomendada!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aunque una narrativa excelente y una historia interesante, parece que está construida desde el final. No me ha gustado lo abierto que parecen algunos cabos. ¿Lo bueno? Que es muy sencilla de leer, pero no es una historia reseñable.

[Aldo Annicchiarico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bonilla si conferma un ottimo scrittore. Libro crudo e avvincente

[Francisco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un tema muy interesante, pero quizá tratado con demasiada distancia

[DeLulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trama bastante curiosa, pero en mi opinión luce un poco introducción gran parte del libro sin profundizar en la trama que tendría mucho potencial

[Diego · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una lectura muy fresa y original sobre un tema no muy común en la lectura que es la trata de blancas desde un punto de vista que te hace pensar sobre nuestros prejuicios y valores.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author takes the serious topics of sex slavery/prostitution and international poverty and manages to write an engaging and often funny book. The book is told in first-person narration by one of the "scouts" of an exclusive "Club" to which beautiful and destitute people are recruited. The narrator rationalizes that he's saving the "pieces" from their desperate situations by offering them the chance to earn a lot of money working for the Club.

Despite hating the narrator and his worldview, I found the book incredibly compelling. The narrator sometimes wished during his telling for an omniscient narrator who could tell him what was happening with other characters in the book. So did I. I wanted to know what was going on inside the heads of some of the other characters, but the author steadfastly stuck to the limited perspective of the first-person narrator.

Highly unusual and highly recommended.

[NuHunni · Rating 3 out of 5]

well didn't really expect this kind of plot!! when i got the book on a dollar sale, i was simply attracted to the cover of the 'Nubian Prince'..

I didn't hate it!! but i didn't love it either!! kind of disturbing at some points.. like referring to vulnerable people as 'pieces' as they will be turned into a 'machine' to train their bodies into nothing but simply sexually pleasing their clients!!

However, I loved the twisted ending though!!

Would i recommend it? I guess if you haven't got anything else to read..then go for it :)

[Rosanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

How can such a serious subject be funny? Bonilla can do it and still the novel is tragic, for all involved.
The themes are many and very timely. Immigration,refugees,the plight of failing countries and government and the people ready to take advantage of all these weaknesses.I kept hoping the protagonist was going to find a way out and be able to save himself.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an addictive little story about an international prostitution ring and their recruiters' hunt for a nubian prince. Yeah. It's not bad; I wish I could have read it in it's original Spanish print.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This spanish author manages to take the subjects of illegal immigrants, the sex trade, poverty, and personal hardship and create a disturbingly lighthearted story that I couldnt put down.

[Bren · Rating 4 out of 5]

how can one resist a book featuring a dog called omniscient narrator?

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disturbing story. Okay writing style. Is high-priced prostitution better than living in a garbage dump?

[Khadijah Mayfield]

i loved it

[Vivencio · Rating 4 out of 5]

with human trafficking/immigration being hot-button issues these days, this gem of a book manages to be simultaneously meditative and satirical.