Barcelona will host a literary discussion this Thursday, May 14, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., focusing on the novel “Night Falls on Shanghai” (Plaza & Janés, 2026) by writer and diplomat Luis Melgar. The event, organized by Casa Asia in collaboration with Alibri Llibreria and Plaza & Janés, will take place at Alibri Llibreria (Carrer de Balmes, 26, Barcelona). Admission is free until capacity is reached.
The work offers an approach to Shanghai in the 1930s, a city marked by intrigue, diversity, and major international conflicts. The discussion will explore both the historical context and the Spanish presence in the city, combining literature and history, and will also include the participation of Pilar Eyre.
In the 1930s, Shanghai was probably the most fascinating and dangerous city in the world. Diplomats, businessmen, mafias, journalists, and revolutionaries coexisted in a metropolis fragmented by foreign concessions and riddled with the major conflicts that were about to transform the 20th century.
The story begins at the Spanish Consulate in Shanghai, during a reception on Midsummer’s Eve in 1935. Suddenly, two gunshots interrupt the music, and a mysterious Russian aristocrat falls dead before the guests. From that moment on, three young Spaniards—the photographer Isabel de la Cruz, the businessman Miguel Roxas, heir to the San Miguel brewery, and the Basque pelota player Asier Ormaetxe—find themselves drawn into an international intrigue that connects the rise of fascism in Europe, the Japanese threat in Asia, and the conflicting interests of the major powers in China.
The novel also reconstructs a little-known chapter of the shared history between Spain and China: the presence of a small but active Spanish community in interwar Shanghai. Diplomats, merchants, and pelota players found in the city a space of opportunity where cultures, interests, and ambitions from all over the world coexisted.
Through a plot of espionage and international conspiracy, Night Falls on Shanghai offers a literary portrait of a unique city: a place where the glamour of grand hotels and nightclubs coexisted with smuggling, opium trafficking, and political intrigue; a Shanghai where the conflicts that would shape the destiny of the 20th century were already being foreshadowed.
Welcome remarks:
José Pintor, Director General of Casa Asia
Participants:
Luis Melgar, writer and diplomat
Pilar Eyre, journalist and writer
Luis Melgar (Madrid, 1980) is a Spanish diplomat and writer. Between 2019 and 2026, he was posted to China, first at the Spanish Embassy and later at the European Union Delegation in Beijing. He has published more than twenty books of historical fiction, essays, and autofiction, as well as children’s books and popular science books.
Pilar Eyre (Barcelona, 1951) studied Philosophy and Literature and Information Sciences. A journalist and writer, she has enjoyed a brilliant career in print, radio, and television. She is one of the most recognizable voices in social commentary and the portrayal of recent Spanish history. Author of numerous books, she was a finalist for the 2014 Planeta Prize with *My Favorite Color Is Seeing You*. Always attuned to her times, she continues to share that same personal and insightful voice on her successful YouTube channel.
