Valero’s work is an invitation to slow down and contemplate, to discover a spirituality that remains as an echo in the face of contemporary materialism.
Vicente Valero has established itself as one of the most profound and reflective voices in contemporary Spanish literature. With a career that began in poetry and has evolved into prose loaded with contemplation and spiritual depth, Valero is known for his ability to intertwine history, landscape and humanity, creating atmospheres that invite the reader to an almost meditative introspection.
The time of the lilies
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In The time of the lilieshis most recent work, Valero take a tour of Umbriathe Italian region where he lived Saint Francis of Assisiexploring not only the places that marked the saint’s life, but also the spiritual legacy he left over the centuries. According to the newspaper’s review The Countrythe book is “a beauty”standing out both for its style and for Valero’s ability to transmit the primitive and luminous message of San Francisco to a modern era increasingly distant from these values.
Born in Ibiza in 1963Vicente Valero has been above all a poet. Among his poetic works, books such as Forest daysfor which he obtained the Loewe Foundation International Award in 2008, and Solar theoryrecognized with the Loewe Award for Young Creation. His meditative style and his ability to capture the essence of nature and art have also marked his narrative prose, in which themes of spirituality, memory, and European cultural history play a crucial role.
The writer Vicente Valero, at his desk
Since his first novel, The strangers (2014), Valero has been faithful to a slow and reflective look, which moves away from contemporary urgency to immerse itself in a narrative that, according to The Country, It feels both introspective and kind, seeking a deep connection with essential values.
In The time of the liliesValero presents us with Saint Francis of Assisi as a figure that symbolizes a “silent dissidence” against the speed and superficiality of modernity. Through a journey through the Umbria region, known for its vast valleys and medieval villages, Valero reconstructs the spaces where the saint left his mark, connecting the mysticism of the frescoes and churches with the life of voluntary poverty and devotion to animals that characterized Francis.
The time of the lilies is a journey towards the essential, a silent dissidence against the empty certainties of the present
This journey is a journey in space, and at the same time, towards an era in which spirituality was conceived as a simple and essential truth. In its pages, the author invites the reader to reflect on faith, the search for wisdom and the role of humility in a world that increasingly seems to forget these principles.
El País highlights the capacity of Valero to combine references to historical and literary figures such as Giovanni di Pietro (Lo Spagna), Goethe, Montaigne, Simone Weil y Hermann Hesseweaving a narrative that, without being overtly theological, explores the transcendence of Francis in Western culture.
Francis of Assisi is presented as a character who, like the Greek cynics, rejected materialism and sought a life of simplicity and contemplation, inspiring utopian movements and thinkers of different eras. Valero collects this influence and presents it in a lyrical and slow style, which according to The Countryhighlighted by his “purity and humor”, elements that recall the vision of the French thinker Simone Weil on spirituality.
Valero follows in the footsteps of San Francisco to find the primitive truth that resists in a modern world saturated with speed and consumption
This work is, in essence, a form of dissidence against the frenetic pace of today, an invitation to stop and contemplate, to rediscover the values that Francis defended and that, centuries later, continue to resonate as an echo of wisdom in the face of materialism.
Valero He is also a noted essayist, and his interest in figures who, like Francis of Assisi, challenged the norms of their time, is evident in books such as Experience and poverty: Walter Benjamin in Ibiza (2001). In this essay, Valero explores the German philosopher’s connection to the island and his impact on modern culture and thought.
Furthermore, in titles such as Contemporary travelers: Ibiza, 20th centuryValero reveals his fascination with those creators and thinkers who find a space of freedom and resistance on the margins of society. This interest in the marginal, the essential and the contemplative is a constant in his work, and The time of the lilies is not the exception.
The time of the lilies, More than a simple biography or travel diary, it is a work that invites introspection, a tribute to a literary tradition that, in the words of The Countryseeks to “make new what is forgotten.”
In this book, Valero manages to capture the spirit of San Francisco, and also a region and a time that seem to speak to our time, remembering theThe importance of humility, compassion and the search for what is essential.
