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If the 1990s are still a vivid memory, Málaga’s Book Fair offered a welcome return to one of the decade’s best-known literary voices this weekend. Scottish author Irvine Welsh appeared at the 55th Málaga Book Fair to present Men in Love, the long-awaited sequel to Trainspotting, with copies already on sale in Málaga before the book’s official release in Spanish bookshops on May 13.

 

Welsh opened his talk with a typical touch of self-deprecation, telling the audience: “My Spanish is very bad, sorry!” He then spoke with editor and translator Carlos Pranger at the Eduardo Ocón Auditorium, which filled quickly despite the rain earlier in the afternoon.

 

The new novel revisits Renton, Spud, Begbie and Sick Boy, following them into the late 1980s as they move through the closing years of Thatcher’s Britain. According to Welsh, Men in Love explores a more tender side of the characters, looking at “the fear of not being loved” as well as friendship, love, money and power. He described it as a story about a transitional time in life, when men begin to think more seriously about romance and their own mortality.

 

Welsh also reflected on the changing nature of male friendship, joking: “When I was younger, men only hugged each other at sporting events; now it seems like they do it all the time.” He linked that shift to the decline of patriarchy, while also saying his writing reflects a system that pushes people to “mess up their lives” before trying to rebuild them.

 

The Edinburgh of his childhood and youth is once again central to the story, with the novel set against working-class life and economic hardship. Welsh also used the event to share his views on modern life, calling social media “far more toxic than heroin” and describing artificial intelligence as “a machine that tells you what to think and say.”

 

He added that reading and study remain the best ways to gain deeper knowledge. Asked if he would want to back in his twenties again, his answer was clear: “I wouldn’t want to be 20 again because there’s so little freedom.” The 55th Málaga Book Fair itself is bigger than ever this year, with 71 stalls, nearly 10% more than last year.

 

 

Image: Junta de Andalucía