La espía de cristal / The Crystal Spy

Talbe Shala is not just one more victim of the last war in the Balkans. She is a lover with a frozen soul. An interpreter for the United Nations. A mother made of silences. An acclaimed Albano-Kosovar journalist. A spy. This disturbing story begins with a strange disappearance of Taibe in Pristina, her native town, in October 2019.

Manu Pancorbo, alias Panco, an old love of Taibe’s and a Spanish war reporter, will embark on his own particular odyssey to find out the reasons for the disappearance of the woman he has never forgotten. He will do so accompanied by his loyal companion in armed conflicts, Olga Balcells, a photographer who has amassed international recognition, death of the loved ones and ghosts from which she cannot free herself.

The two journalists’ investigations in the new Kosovo will lead them into a dark world of personal vendettas, intelligence agencies, suspense and betrayal. Returning to the Balkans twenty years later will open wounds in Panco that he thought were already healed. It will be by delving into the episodes of a recent past that he will discover who Taibe Shala is. An enigmatic woman he will never fully get to know.

The Crystal Spy is a dark and emotive literature, an agonizing account of the last war in Europe. Between the dilemmas of intelligence services and the non-negotiable search for the truth, there is also room for a love story as ambiguous as it is true.