Reconciliación : Memorias

“My father always advised me against writing my memoirs. Kings don't confess. And certainly not publicly. Their secrets remain buried in the shadows of the palaces. Why am I disobeying him today? Why have I changed my mind? Because I feel my story is being stolen.” This work, written in the first person and whose publication is itself a historic event, does indeed rectify that situation. If His Majesty has decided to recount his story after almost forty years on the throne, it is because the move to Abu Dhabi, some public opinion, and, why not, his own mistakes have ended up overshadowing his career and his fundamental contributions to the success of Spanish democracy. Reconciliation recounts in detail the private side of a public life. It is a memoir rich in anecdotes that does not shy away from the most significant episodes of our recent history, but neither from the joys nor the sorrows of his private and personal life. A journey that begins in a country embroiled in a fratricidal war, with a young Juan Carlos bound to a destiny that is not his own. Yet, step by step, eluding countless plots and winning the trust of all sides, he ultimately becomes the central figure in Spain's radical transformation into the modern and prosperous nation it is today. Written with an open heart and without compromise, the book navigates between the two exiles that mark the beginning and end of his life—the forced one in Estoril and the voluntary one in Abu Dhabi—and features many of the most prominent figures in contemporary history. The monarch, in the twilight of his life and far from his family, prepares to make his final confession. "I have no right to cry," he says. But he has the right to seek his longed-for reconciliation with the country he loves and yearns for so deeply.