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Author: Ben Stubbs
ISBN: 9781909930438
Format: PB
Extent: 224 pp
Price: € 9,99
Publication: September 2016
Publisher: Signal Books
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In 2016 writer Ben Stubbs was drawn to explore the Spanish capital at night like the flâneurs of the past. He set out when the sun went down to examine the life of the night in this often-maligned city, a place famed for its late hours and exuberant nightlife. Exploring the history of everything from tapas to the new politics of Podemos, he encountered the city’s cultural quirks and clandestine stories while talking to many Madrileños who are normally denied a voice in the city.
As each hour of the night unfolds, Stubbs discovers different layers within Madrid that many visitors do not see as they stick to well-trodden guidebook itineraries. The deepening darkness reveals cross-dressing migrants, people who live at the airport, Muslims celebrating Ramadan, hotel workers hidden in the bowels of the Ritz, all-night taxi drivers, party-goers enjoying their nightly marcha from bar to bar, poodle-blessing priests and locals in the poorer barrios who walk the streets with him to share the experience of a trasnochador—one who lives during the hours of the night.
Mixing personal observation with literary and historical references, Stubbs introduces us to a hitherto unknown and fascinating dimension of Madrid. After Dark reveals a multifaceted city, full of surprises and possibilities, and very much awake and alive between dusk and dawn.
