Abstract

Smuggling has been a way of life in Galicia for millennia. The Romans considered its windswept coast the edge of the world. To the Greeks it was from where Charon ferried souls to the Underworld. Since the Middle Ages, its shoreline has scuppered thousands of pirate ships. But the history of Cape Finisterre is no fiction and by the late twentieth century a new and exotic cargo flooded the cape’s ports and fishing villages.

In Snow on the Atlantic, the book the Spanish national court tried to ban, intrepid investigative journalist Nacho Carretero tells the incredible story of how a sleepy, unassuming corner of Spain became the cocaine gateway into Europe, exposing a new generation of criminals, cartels and corrupt officials, more efficient and ruthless than any who came before.

‘A Spanish story nobody ever told. A unique story, written with a novel's prose, but beware: this is all true.’
Roberto Saviano, author of Gomorrah: Italy’s Other Mafia

‘Adds a dramatic new chapter to the saga of Colombia’s infamous drug lords – revealing their corrupting influence far beyond the capitals of Cali and Medellin. Intrepid investigative journalist Nacho Carretero has delivered history written as an action thriller and filled it with intriguing characters.’
William C. Rempel, author of At the Devil’s Table

‘Just as the coast of Galicia has become a gate-way for one of the most potent substances to flood Europe, this excellent book becomes an entry point into understanding a crucial aspect of the history of our continent – an aspect historians so far have overlooked.’
Norman Ohler, author of Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany

‘There are some books that can never be silenced.’
Booksellers Guild of Madrid

Nacho Carretero is an investigative journalist with the Spanish newspaper El País. His reporting has taken him to countries ranging from the Phillipines to Rwanda, and he has previously written for El Español, El Mundo and many other publications. The original Spanish edition of Snow on the Atlantic has become a bestseller in Spain, and is being adapted as a TV series by Antena 3.

Thomas Bunstead is a writer and translator based in East Sussex, England. He has translated some of the leading Spanish-language writers working today, including Agustín Fernández Mallo, Enrique Vila-Matas and Juan Villoro, and his own writing has appeared in publications such as >kill author, Paris Review Daily, and The TLS. He is an editor at the literary translation journal In Other Words. @thom_bunn