Sierra, Javier 1971-
Sierra, Javier 1971-
PERSONAL:
Born August 11, 1971, in Teruel, Spain. Education: University of Madrid, received degree. Hobbies and other interests: Traveling.
ADDRESSES:
Home—Málaga, Spain.
CAREER:
Año Cero (magazine), cofounder, 1990; Más Allá de la Ciencia (magazine), assistant director, 1995-98; contributor to television broadcasts, including the television shows Crónicas Marcianas 2000-04, and El otro lado de la realidad ("The Other Side of Reality"), Telemadrid, 2004; contributor to radio shows, including Milenio 3, Cadena SER Radio, Herrera en la Onda, Onda Cero Radio, 2002-03, and La rosa de los vientos, Onda Cero Radio, 2004-06.
WRITINGS:
Roswell: secreto de estado (title means "Roswell: State Secret"), EDAF (Madrid, Spain), 1995.
(With Jesús Callejo) La España extraña: un viaje por los misterios que permanecen vivos en nuestra geografía: misterios celestes y religiosos, prologue by Juan G. Atienza, Editorial Edaf (Madrid, Spain), 1997.
La Dama Azul (novel), Ediciones Martínez Roca (Barcelona, Spain), 1998, translation published as The Lady in Blue, Atria Books (New York, NY), 2007.
Las Puertas templarias: un secreto medieval está a punto de cambiar la historia, (novel; title in part means "The Templar Doors"), Ediciones Martínez Roca (Barcelona, Spain), 2000.
En busca de la Edad de Oro, Grijalbo Mondadori (Barcelona, Spain), 2000.
El Secreto egipcio de Napoleón (novel; title means "Napoleon's Egyptian Secret"), La Esfera (Madrid, Spain), 2002.
(Editor) Revista de Arqueología, MC Ediciones (Barcelona, Spain), 2002.
(Editor and author of introduction) La Cámara Secreta (novel anthology), Círculo de Lectores (Valencia, Spain), 2003.
La cena secreta (novel), Plaza & Janés (Barcelona, Spain), 2004, translation by Alberto Manguel published as The Secret Supper, Atria Books (New York, NY), 2006.
Contributor to Relatos Ferroviarios Sobre Raíles, Imagine Ediciones, 2003. Sierra's books have been translated into twenty-five languages.
SIDELIGHTS:
Javier Sierra is a noted Spanish author who combines fiction with serious research to write about some of the past's greatest mysteries. For example, he has written about the secret organization known as the Knights Templar, the mystical nun María de Jesús of Agreda, and mysteries surrounding lost civilizations. In his novel The Secret Supper, Sierra tells the story of fifteenth-century Papal inquisitor Father Agostino Leyre's investigation of the supposed heresies of Leonardo da Vinci. Specifically, Father Leyre is sent to determine what secret messages may reside in da Vinci's painting "The Last Supper." Among the potentially illuminating questions the priest seeks answers to are: Why does da Vinci leave halos off of the holy figures? Do the positions of the apostles mean anything? Why does the tablecloth have a knot in it? To further complicate his mission, people begin to die as Father Leyre closes in on the painting's secrets. A Publishers Weekly contributor called The Secret Supper "a fresh contribution to the da Vinci industry." A Kirkus Reviews contributor commented: "No mere Da Vinci Code redux, this Spanish bestseller fuses an ecclesiastical whodunit with an A-Z guide to Neoplatonist philosophy and Renaissance symbology."
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Entertainment Weekly, March 24, 2006, Jennifer Reese, review of The Secret Supper, p. 72.
Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2006, review of The Secret Supper, p. 60.
Library Journal, February 1, 2006, Lisa O'Hara, review of The Secret Supper, p. 74.
New York Times Book Review, April 9, 2006, Dwight Garner, review of The Secret Supper, p. 30.
Philadelphia Inquirer, April 26, 2006, Frank Wilson, review of The Secret Supper.
Publishers Weekly, January 2, 2006, review of The Secret Supper, p. 33.
USA Today, March 27, 2006, Carol Memmott, review of The Secret Supper, p. 04D.
ONLINE
Javier Sierra Home Page,http://english.javiersierra.com (July 24, 2006).
Simon & Schuster Web site,http://www.simonsays.com/ (July 24, 2006), brief profile of Sierra.