Culture
Malaga's Rayuela literary circle celebrates 25th anniversaryThe 'tertulia', as the Spanish term describes them, has existed since before book clubs
Group photo from the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Rayuela bookshop in Malaga. (Migue Fernández)Paco Griñán
Malaga
04/05/2026 a las 13:56h.They would first meet in the Rayuela bookshop in Malaga on the last Thursday of the month, at closing time. Their first meeting was on 25 January 2001 and they are still there 25 years later. Once the final customer leaves, they walk in, readers themselves, and take over Rayuela to discuss the novel and author chosen for that month.
"I just leave them the keys now, they lock up and even set the alarm," bookseller Noelia Clavero says. She considers the members of the Rayuela literary circle part of the family. In fact, the shop's former owner, Juan Manuel Cruz, invited the first ten members and set up this pioneering reading group, although they prefer the Spanish term 'tertulia'.
"It's not criticism, but when we first met, the Anglo-Saxon idea of a 'book club' hadn't arrived yet. Besides, the Spanish term is wonderful: 'tertulia', a group of people who meet to talk about shared interests. That's exactly what we are. Books bring us together," pioneer member Eduardo Jiménez Urdiales says.
Three other "survivors", as he jokingly calls them, still remain from that first gathering: Emilio Gimeno, Rafael Maldonado and Enrique Schussler. Today, 18 members meet on the last Thursday of each month. Discussions range from calm agreement to heated debate, though never quite coming to blows. Here, the written word gets through just fine without bloodshed.
"At that first meeting 25 years ago, none of us knew each other. The only thing we shared was a love of reading and the fact that Juanma (Cruz) had brought us together to talk about books. He knew us all and drove the whole project," Eduardo says. He says that the bookseller was the true force behind this literary forum, where he also took part as just another member.
A quarter of a century leaves plenty of stories. The group even survived the pandemic, switching to Zoom when they had to. The hardest blow came in 2021, when their founder died, but that didn't stop them from maintaining the tradition. "What better tribute to Juanma than to carry on his legacy?" Eduardo says.
They have also relied on the support of Noelia Clavero, now the owner of Rayuela, who first encountered the group when she joined as an employee two decades ago. "When I took over the bookshop, I knew I had to protect what had already been built and the tertulia is part of Rayuela's identity," she says. She still remembers what one member once told her: "When you leave us here on our own, it's like locking children in a toy shop."
All types of books
Over the past 25 years, the structure of the tertulia has barely changed. "One member proposes a book and then defends it, either by speaking or with a written text that we print and share with customers as a recommendation," Eduardo, who has recently retired after 34 years as a literature teacher, says. Before that, just after graduating, he even worked at Rayuela alongside Juan Manuel Cruz and Carmen Niño, the original co-owners.
"I've done almost everything in the world of books: I've read them, taught them, explained them, sold them, debated them and written them," he says. Eduardo describes himself as a lifelong writer who came to publication late. He published his first novel (Sombras del poniente) in 2019 and will present his second (Recreo) at this year's book fair.
The name and its status as the oldest tertulia is not the group's only distinction. It has also developed its own style of choosing books. Unlike many reading clubs that focus on new releases, the Rayuela group favours classics and authors from across the world, not just Spain. While most choices have been novels, they have also explored poetry, theatre, short stories and essays by writers such as Miklós Bánffy, Arundhati Roy, David Malouf, Robertson Davies, Sei Shōnagon, J. M. Coetzee, Albert Cohen, Orhan Pamuk, Natalia Ginzburg, Juan Rulfo, Sergiusz Piasecki, Mohammed Chukri, Malcolm Lowry, Roberto Bolaño, Jorge Luis Borges, Carson McCullers and Angel Wagenstein, among others.
"The only rule when choosing the monthly read has been to trust completely the literary taste of whoever proposes it. That's how we've discovered so many authors," Eduardo says.
He also highlights another defining feature: guest speakers. "The first to visit us was Antonio Soler, when he published El espiritista melancólico. Since then, he's come back every time he's released a new book," he states.
Other guests have included José Antonio Garriga Vela, Jesús Aguado, Pablo Aranda, Rafael Ballesteros, Antonio Orejudo, Fernando Navarro, Inma Villanueva, Vicente Luis Mora and Irene Vallejo, as well as publishers such as Luis Miguel Solano (Libros del Asteroide), Jesús Egido (Reino de Cordelia) and Francisco Torres (EDA Libros).
Writer Rodrigo Fresán also visited the group when promoting his novel Jardines de Kensington. During his visit, he learnt about the Village Green bar on Calle Álamos (named after a record by The Kinks, a band that inspired him), where he shared a beer with Eduardo.
When it comes to the social side, books matter as much as good wine. Sometimes they meet in the bookshop, sometimes in a bar, but discussions often continue over drinks and meals. "They argue like friends, which is exactly what they've become after all these years," Noelia says.