Mud and Longing (Fango y anhelo)

A minister willing to risk everything for power, a young woman who knows the system’s secrets, and a man who has been recording it all. When a web of corruption threatens to come to light, the foundations of government begin to crack in a political thriller as explosive as it is unsettlingly familiar.

Tamara stares at the pixelated photographs published in the press that allegedly incriminate her. It is not her. The mistake amuses her: if they can get something so obvious wrong, perhaps they are wrong about everything else as well. In the world she inhabits, truth matters less than the narrative. It is a universe of favors, corruption, sex, bought loyalties, and internal wars, where reality always belongs to whoever has the power to impose it.

Years earlier, Tamara was a pragmatic and ambitious young prostitute from the outskirts of the city who found an opportunity in Paco, one of the most powerful men in the country. Through Goyo, his trusted bodyguard and fixer, Paco installs her in a luxury apartment, guarantees her a monthly allowance, and secures her a fictitious job in a state-owned company. For Tamara, the relationship is a transaction designed to finance her real dream: studying aesthetic medicine and building an independent life. For Paco, however, she represents one last romantic fantasy capable of easing a void he has carried since childhood.

A veteran socialist politician, Paco has spent his entire life chasing what he can never quite attain. The son of a failed bullfighter, raised amid disappointment and resentment, he has dedicated decades to accumulating influence, wealth, lovers, and prestige without ever feeling fulfilled. His greatest creation is Pablo, an apparently unremarkable politician whom he transforms into a national leader through his talent for strategy and internal conspiracies. But once Pablo reaches the presidency, Paco discovers that the success of his protégé has become his greatest humiliation.

Meanwhile, an entire galaxy of characters both sustains and feeds off the system. Goyo, brutal and loyal only to a point, begins secretly recording incriminating conversations in order to protect himself should power change hands. Journalists fascinated by their proximity to the president, opportunistic businessmen, ambitious ministers, and mistresses turned into bargaining chips orbit a political machine in which everyone struggles to survive and no one is truly indispensable.

During the pandemic, Paco and Goyo exploit the health emergency to participate in shady business deals involving the purchase of masks. The operations multiply, as do the secrets. What begins as a network of minor favors and privileges gradually reveals a far deeper structure of corruption, cronyism, and abuse. Yet the greatest threat comes neither from the opposition nor from the justice system, but from power itself, which inevitably devours those who serve it for too long.

Little by little, Paco begins to lose control of everything he thought he owned. He replaces Tamara with younger women and discovers that even love cannot be bought indefinitely. His former allies drift away. Pablo, increasingly obsessed with retaining power, orders an investigation into the very man who made his rise possible. Once he understands the scale of the scandals that could engulf the government, he decides to sacrifice his old mentor in order to secure his own political survival.

Paco’s downfall proves as relentless as his rise. Abandoned by his collaborators, rejected by those who once depended on him, and haunted by the consequences of his own decisions, he watches as the world he helped create continues functioning perfectly well without him. While Goyo considers betraying everyone in order to save himself and Tamara struggles to rebuild her life away from that universe, Paco descends into a spiral of isolation and decay that culminates in his death just as the authorities begin to close in.

But the novel saves its bitterest blow for the end. Goyo’s recordings threaten to destroy political careers and expose years of corruption. Yet nothing truly changes. Pablo wins reelection, the scandals are absorbed by the system, and the machinery of power keeps turning. As some fall, others take their place. As some are forgotten, others rise. The day after his electoral victory, Pablo celebrates by a swimming pool surrounded by admirers, transformed into an almost mythical figure. Corruption, desire, and ambition outlive every character.

RELEVANT INFORMATION: Juan Vilá is a Spanish writer and journalist. He has developed his professional career in journalism, collaborating with a variety of media outlets while also establishing himself as a literary critic through his blog Algo de libros.

His fiction is characterized by a critical perspective on society, intimate and family relationships, and human contradictions, conveyed through a style that combines irony, rawness, and emotional sensitivity.

His latest novel, Mud and Longing (Fango y anhelo), is a daring, corrosive, and darkly satirical political thriller that offers an unfiltered portrait of the mechanisms of power. Its greatest strengths lie in its ensemble cast and multilayered plot, both of which evoke contemporary political realities and enhance its relevance. Its narrative structure, twists, and black humor provide remarkable audiovisual potential, making it an ideal project for a television series.

AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Limited Series, Feature Film, TV Movie.

AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish.