excerpts: 

The book has struck a chord with readers, but it has also become a lightning rod in Spain’s emotional political debate, fueled by party fragmentation and polarization. Ms. Simón said her book had been interpreted as “a questioning of the dogmas of liberalism,” to an extent that she had not anticipated.

As a student, Ms. Simón was an activist who joined a far-left protest movement in 2011 that occupied Puerta del Sol, a famous square in Madrid, to condemn political corruption and economic inequality, just months before the Occupy Wall Street movement followed suit in New York.

On the back of her novel’s success, Ms. Simón has taken on a larger role, and she was recently invited by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a socialist, to give a speech about how to revive the Spanish countryside. She has also now become a columnist for El País, the Spanish newspaper.

Ms. Simón stressed that she remained far to the left of Mr. Sánchez’ politics and unhappy with his management of Spain, as well as opposed to a European Union that she blames for turning Spain into “the resort hotel of Europe.” She said that she was stunned not only by the success of her book, but also by how an ultranationalist and conservative audience had embraced “Feria” as an ode to Spain’s traditional family values, even though it discusses her parents’ separation and her gay brother. Last June, the leader of Spain’s far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, grasped a copy of “Feria” while addressing Congress.