Taxi

For seven days and six nights, an insomniac taxi driver roams the darkest corners of Barcelona, trying to escape the failure of his marriage and from himself. But a violent dispute over a drug shipment drags him into a spiral of crime and destruction that will force him to decide whether to keep running or finally dare to start over. 

Sandino is a Barcelona taxi driver who has spent far too long running from himself. Insomnia forces him to navigate a city he knows better by night than by day, while his marriage to Lola slowly collapses and he takes refuge in affairs, alcohol, and impossible fantasies. Unable to face the conversation that would determine the future of his relationship, he prefers to keep driving, convinced that any destination is better than going home.

His only apparent escape is Natalia Viladrau, the sophisticated mother of two girls whom he drives to school every morning. Sandino turns a simple attraction into an obsession. He imagines her as the woman who could rescue him from his mediocrity, even though she belongs to an unattainable world and barely knows him. As he chases this illusion, he continues betraying Lola and drifting from one affair to another.

Then Barcelona’s criminal underworld crosses his path. Sofía, a fellow taxi driver, picks up a passenger who dies bleeding in her cab. Among his belongings, she finds a bag containing a large amount of cash and scopolamine. Desperate to help her sister, who is facing eviction, she decides to keep part of the money and hand the rest over to the police. That single decision turns her into the target of a criminal organization determined to recover the missing cash. Sandino tries to protect her and finds himself trapped in a war that was never his to fight.

The threats quickly escalate into violence. Sandino’s taxi is vandalized, Sofía suffers a brutal assault, and her life becomes governed by fear. In an attempt to stop the escalating danger, Sandino investigates who is really behind the drug operation and uncovers a criminal network led by Héctor, a former police officer who now owns a bar frequented by taxi drivers, criminals, and society’s losers. The investigation also reveals an even more painful truth: one of Sandino’s former lovers had his daughter without ever telling him. Suddenly, he realizes he has not only destroyed his present but also lost the chance of having a family.

As everything around him falls apart, he believes he has found one last opportunity with Natalia. After months of idealizing her, he finally shares a brief moment of intimacy with her. Sandino interprets it as the beginning of a new life. For Natalia, however, it is only a fleeting moment. She dismisses him from her life with complete indifference, leaving him humiliated and broken.

When all hope of regaining control disappears, Sandino chooses to answer violence with violence. He crashes a car into Héctor’s bar, destroying the symbol of the man he holds responsible for the nightmare consuming his life. He then flees from the police while the vehicle burns beside the Besòs River. Barcelona has ceased to be his home and become a city he desperately wants to escape.

At that moment, he decides to honor a favor requested months earlier by Ahmed, a Moroccan taxi driver and one of the few friends who still believe in him. Ahmed fears that his younger brother, Emad, has fallen into a network of Islamist radicalization and begs Sandino to help get him out of the country before he travels to Syria to join the jihad. With nothing left to lose and eager to leave behind the ruined life he has created, Sandino sets out for France accompanied by Emad and the boy’s sister, Maryam. He leaves Barcelona as a man without a home, without a family, and almost without an identity. The question remains: will there be anything left of himself on the other side of the border?

RELEVANT INFORMATION: Carlos Zanón is a Spanish writer, screenwriter, cultural critic, and lawyer, widely regarded as one of Spain’s leading crime fiction authors. He has received numerous awards, including the Hammett Prize, the Novepol Prize, the Brigada Prize for Best Crime Novel of the Year, and the Valencia Negra Prize for Best Novel of the Year, among others. His work has been translated into English, French, Italian, German, and Greek.

Taxi combines urban noir with the intimate portrait of a man in the midst of personal collapse. Through an imperfect and deeply human protagonist, Zanón creates a story in which emotional decay coexists with a raw and highly realistic criminal plot. Barcelona is not merely a setting but an essential element of the narrative: a nocturnal, melancholic, and contradictory city that reinforces the novel’s atmosphere. Its blend of drama, thriller, and dark humor, together with a cast of memorable secondary characters, gives the work a distinctive identity and strong commercial appeal.

WHAT THE CRITICS HAVE SAID

“Sandino, the melancholic taxi driver hungry for love who searches and flees through Barcelona to the soundtrack of The Clash, is one of the most formidable characters in recent literature.”
Isaac Rosa

“Spain’s Jim Thompson is called Carlos Zanón.” Lorenzo Silva.

“Carlos Zanón has developed a way of telling stories and creating characters that sets him apart from many other authors. The rhythm of his carefully crafted prose pulses through every sentence, striking and shaking the reader.” Claudia Piñeiro.

“That Carlos Zanón is one of the best things to have happened to literature in these parts in recent years is no longer a secret.” El Confidencial.

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

AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish, French, Greek.