Welcome! I’m M.A. Álvarez, and this is one of my books.
Here you’ll discover the story and the eerie melodies of a lute whose strings seem to hold shadows of their own.
Listen closely … the music is alive.
THE FACE WITHIN THE LUTE
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Synopsis
A horror story about an enchanted instrument
Julia, a Sevillian historian consumed by her obsession with her work, recognizes an ancient lute in a collector’s gallery with a grotesque face inside it. Suddenly, a long-forgotten legend resurfaces in her mind: Centuries ago, there lived a minstrel feared by all, for misfortune befell those who heard his music.
Drawn by its historical significance, Julia resolves to acquire the gloomy instrument. However, before the transaction, the collector reveals to her that one of his ancestors once possessed the lute, only to be overcome by a strange and overwhelming dread.
Despite the warnings, Julia acquires the lute and, from then on, a chain of unsettling events begins to unfold around her.
It is a story told by three narrators, each revealing fragments of the mystery that surrounds the lute, the mysteries of the present and the past …
Author: M.A. Álvarez
M.A. Álvarez (Mª Auxiliadora Álvarez, Seville, Spain, 1984). Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Seville. Writer, illustrator and graphic designer.
Author of the books and novels: Medianical Age: Drifting through the tides of time / Medianical Age: A la deriva entre las mareas del tiempo, The Face Within the Lute / El Rostro en el Laúd (both novels, published in English and Spanish by Lacuhe Ediciones, New York, in 2025 and 2023, respectively), Casos Descartados (3rd ed. Ediciones Daimon, Argentina, 2024) and El Décimo Paciente y otras historias de terror (Ediciones Pangea, Seville, 2019, 2025).
Winner of two literary contests in the year 2011: the “XVI edition of the Carmen Conde Literary Contest, in its IX edition of short stories,” organized by Grupo Aldea (Literary Association of Andalusian Writers) and the “‘Becquerian Legends’ Contest,” organized by the Public Library of Gines (Seville). Subsequently, finalist in the “I International Contest of Fantasy and Horror Novel ‘Dagon’” organized by Ediciones Rubeo in the year 2015, with her novel El Rostro en el Laúd and finalist in the “Ignotus Awards 2023 of Pórtico” (Spanish Association of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror) in the categories Short Story and Article.
Many of her stories have been published in anthologies and magazines and narrated or adapted to sound fiction in different programs and audio fiction channels.