Early years and education
Born in Zaragoza, his family moved to Barcelona and Iturbe grew up in the Barceloneta neighbourhood. He pursued a Bachelor Degree in Journalism at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, where he graduated in 1991. He balanced his studies with several jobs: parking guard, baker, and an auditor. His first job as a journalist, was in a local Barcelona television show called ' ' Televisió de Ciutat Vella.' ' Where he worked as a reporter.
Magazine
After graduating, he created the free magazine Gratix, which he directed and, after taking part in various short media projects, in 1993 got into being the chief supervisor of the supplement television of El Periódico. Subsequently, he became editor of cinema-magazine Fantastic Magazine, and in 1996 he got involved in the emerging book magazine Que Leer, in which he held the position of chief editor, deputy director and, since 2008, director. Throughout these years Iturbe also took part, among many media endeavours, such as the magazine Fotogramas, the book section of Protagonistas in the national radio broadcaster Onda Cero, or in cultural divulgation for Ona Catalana, Icat FM or La Cope de Bilbao, and in cultural supplements for journals La Vanguardia and Avui.
Novels
In 2004 he published his first novel: Rectos torcidos. A humorous novel where the protagonist, a Barceloneta neighbour, starts up his own unique business: To transform Don Quixote and other literature classics into toilet paper to read them in the only place where people have their five minutes of peace a day. In the highest days of Barcelona’s economy he already bitterly criticised the changes Barcelona as a city was undergoing to become a theme park for tourism.In 2008 he published the first title of the children’s book series Los casos del inspector Cito,[3] illustrated by Álex Omist. A police series with plenty of humor in a way for the youngest to get into their firsts police novels. Los casos del inspector Cito is a collection currently made of 10 books and has been translated into 9 languages. In 2012 he published his third novel: The Librarian of Auschwitz , in its original title La bibliotecaria de Auschwitz. It is a novel inspired by the life of Dita Kraus, a survivor of Auschwitz who at the age of 14 was in charge of a clandestine library in the barracks Bllb of the Auschwitz concentration camp. This novel has been translated into 13 languages as of now. The novel was awarded the Troa Prize in 2013. In 2014 Iturbe started a new children's literature series: La Isla de Susú, which is currently at its fourth book into the series, it has also been translated to Korean. The main character is a curious girl living in an island where extraordinary events never cease to happen.
Award
In 2017 he obtained the award Premio Biblioteca Breve with his latest novel: A cielo abierto. A narrative of the marvelous pilot adventures of the very well-known The Little Prince author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Professor
During these years Iturbe has also been a postgraduate professor at the Master of Cultural Journalism at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the Master of Edition at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. He has given lectures as a guest-professor in the faculties of Journalism at the Universidad Blanquerna, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and at the Universitad Abat Oliba. He has belonged to the committee of the selection Bibliotecas de Barcelona and has been honoured President of the Association of Cultural Journalists of Catalonia. In Zaragoza he has been the at the panel experts in the Asociación Miguel Fleta.
For readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Choice: this is the story of the smallest library in the world - and the most dangerous.
'It wasn't an extensive library. In fact, it consisted of eight books and some of them were in poor condition.
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
