Gibraltarian author publishes new novel about tobacco smuggling in the 80s and 90s
Marlboro Man, a new novel by Gibraltarian author M. G. Sanchez, was published on 8 May.
Over 300 pages long and packed with all sorts of incidents, the novel is set in the 1980s and 1990s and explores in detail the large-scale smuggling of tobacco which used to happen in those days.
The author explains: “I left Gibraltar to study English at the University of Leeds in September 1995, two months after the smuggling riots. Ever since those days I’ve been wanting to write a novel about the ‘Winston boys’ and the crazy stuff we witnessed on the Rock back then. Over the last four years I’ve been researching the subject in depth and interviewing different people involved in ‘the tobacco trade.’ I wanted the details in Marlboro Man to be as authentic as possible – from the types of boats used to the chases and other skirmishes experienced out at sea. But the book is not just about crime and smuggling; it is also about borders and colonialism, about migration and hypermasculinity, about life in Gibraltar in the Eighties and Nineties. In many ways, it provides us with a window into a past that few people talk about these days.’
M. G. Sanchez has already been invited to speak about the novel at the University of the Balearic Islands on May 10 and at an online event hosted by the University of California in early June.
Mark is the author fifteen Gibraltar-related books of fiction and non-fiction and his work has been reviewed in literary journals such as Ariel, Hispania and the Journal of Mediterranean Studies.
He has a PhD in English Literature from the University of Leeds.
He hopes that he will be able to launch his book in Gibraltar at some point later this year.
Marlboro Man can be purchased from Amazon in ebook or print form as from 8 May. Its cover features a photograph by Jackie Villa of Kaigan Garcia.
