Novels in the Gables by William Castaño-Bedoya
Growing up in Colombia, William Castaño-Bedoya would jot down stories in school notebooks before he moved to Coral Gables as a young man in the 1980s. He started by bussing tables and cleaning department stores, but by the late ’90s had established an advertising and marketing agency in downtown Coral Gables alongside his wife, Dora-Luz Longas. The company grew to work with multinational clients like MasterCard, but Castaño-Bedoya’s mind always wandered back to his true calling: writing.
Following the closure of the marketing agency in 2018, the writer decided to dust off a novel he had finished in the early 2000s and devote his time, alongside his daughter Camila, to sharing it with the world through their publishing agency, Book&Bilias, which they founded in 2021.
“Flowers for Maria Sucel,” dedicated to Castaño-Bedoya’s mother, was written in the same Coral Gables home he lives in today. Although his work is fiction, much of it is based on personal experiences, which he expands upon in his second novel, “Los Monólogos de Ludovico,” which details absurd scenarios from a sixteen-day family reunion in the Gables.
Latest Achievement
Castaño-Bedoya’s third and most recently published novel, “The Galpon,” will be available online in English this month via all major bookstores. The novel explores the double standards of the corporate world through a set of characters in the ’80s, including the main character, who lives in the Gables.
His upcoming novel, “We the Other People: The Beggars of the Mercury Lights” is an American social story about a character who lives in a house on Alhambra Circle and becomes acutely aware of the struggles of others after suffering from depression. The estimated release date for the English version is May 30, with the Spanish version released June 15.
What He Says
“Thinking is a human’s best source of entertainment,” says Castaño-Bedoya. “We wouldn’t function the same without it. I’m a very observant person – I can look at anyone, whether it be the disenfranchised or the opulent members of the upper class, and wonder about their inner character. I study who they present themselves to be and create stories about them, regardless of who they actually are.”