With Mirtha Legrand in the audience, businessman Alejandro G. Roemmers presented his new novel

Argentine writer and businessman Alejandro G. Roemmers presented The Mystery of the Last Stradivarius , his recent novel published by Editorial Planeta, at the 2025 Book Fair .

The event took place last night in the José Hernández Hall, attended by around 300 people, including family, friends, businesspeople, and associates of the writer and philanthropist , as well as personalities from the literary, fashion, media, and entertainment worlds. Popular TV host Mirtha Legrand was present in the audience , receiving applause and repeated standing ovations.

Model and presenter Teté Coustarot hosted the event . Meanwhile, the stage was filled with a panel of renowned writers who accompanied Roemmers in the presentation: writer and essayist María Rosa Lojo ; Spanish authors Javier Cercas and Javier Moro ; Álvaro Vargas Llosa , son of the recently deceased Mario Vargas Llosa, 2010 Nobel Prize winner in Literature; and Peruvian writer and journalist Raúl Tola , director of the Vargas Llosa Chair.

Roemmers' fifth novel focuses on the last violin made in the 17th century by the famous luthier Antonio Stradivari , the protagonist of this literary piece composed of two plots: on the one hand, it is a detective novel close to a noir novel that narrates the murder of a father and his daughter in a small town in Paraguay. The double murder is investigated by two Guaraní agents.

The second part, meanwhile, focuses on the compilation of historical elements combined with in-depth research over time that alludes to the history of the violin as represented by its occasional owners over nearly three centuries. Both episodes evolve throughout the chapters.

And that's not all, because the epilogue to this book was written by Mario Vargas Llosa (1936-2025), the last one the celebrated Peruvian writer wrote during his lifetime. "It's a novel where mystery and passion intertwine with history," said the author of the acclaimed The City of Dogs (1963) and Conversation in the Cathedral (1969).

Álvaro Vargas Llosa recounted how his father wrote that text. “There’s a short article by my father: it’s one of the last texts he wrote , a text he had to dictate because writing was already difficult . He did it because he was motivated by reading the novel. It excited him enormously,” he revealed.

He also described The Mystery of the Last Stradivarius as "a magnificent novel in which inanimate beings play a central role in the narrative." In this case, Roemmers' work features the violin, whose story spans the 18th century to the present day.

“The question one asks oneself while reading the novel is: at what point will these two stories converge? The structure is so effectively constructed that one has no clues that might inspire the hypothesis of a convergence. It is never clear how these stories will converge until the final moment, when a surprising revelation occurs,” Álvaro Vargas Llosa remarked.

Following this, the words of Spanish novelist Javier Cercas. “I agree with Álvaro: I read this novel in one sitting, in just two afternoons . Its main virtue is that the novel has to pull you in, it has to carry you along. You can't put this novel down ,” pondered the author of the acclaimed Soldiers of Salamis (2001) and The Monarch of Shadows (Planeta Prize 2019).

“This novel is two stories: on the one hand, there's the investigation of a character who has stolen my heart: the protagonist of the book is the violin, but I find Detective Alejandro Tobosa to be an extraordinary character. As Mario Vargas Llosa would say, he's a character who seems to have emancipated himself from the pages that gave birth to him , and you can find him on the street. He's a tenacious, upright policeman, a cuckold whose wife is cheating on him. He's a character you'll keep with you forever,” Cercas praised.

He also said that Roemmers' work " is a historical novel : what it does is narrate the adventures of this violin built by the luthier Antonio Stradivari that revolutionized music in its time, but the novel follows the itinerary of the object to those who attribute magical properties to it throughout the centuries."

According to Cercas's analysis, The Mystery of the Last Stradivarius spans the period from Napoleon's invasions and wars to World War II (1939-1945) in terms of its historical context. "It's a fun, exciting, and also very serious novel because it deals with a serious subject," due to the timeline captured in Roemmers's precise narrative.

Spanish writer Javier Moro , winner of the 2011 Planeta Prize for his novel El imperio eres tú, said of the novel's plot: "There's an approximation to the mystique of the violin, the mystique of an object of humankind that has done its best in terms of wisdom and knowledge to make it more perfect. Those same values ​​resonate with the people who handle it ."

According to his analysis, Roemmers's recent novel " is a unique journey through time and mystery . It is a captivating novel that absolutely grips the reader, who constantly wants to know more about the characters."

And he continued: "It shows us a mysticism of the violin; it is also a reader of magic because it protects those who care for it. So, the violin appears as a metaphor for ephemeral beauty , for the beauty of art or for collective memory."

Finally, Moro said that this work "is a skillful blend of genres that challenges literary conventions: it's part crime novel, part mystery novel, part historical novel, and also part mainstream novel," he concluded.

María Rosa Lojo was the last speaker on the panel. "Alejandro Roemmers's new novel is full of surprises and disconcerting clues , starting with its title. The mystery of the last Stradivarius seems to allude to a detective story constructed along the lines of "Whodunnit?": "Who did it?"

"However, the word mystery itself should warn us against that interpretation . There's a subtle difference between 'mystery' and 'enigma.' Although the word is used in mystery novels, 'mystery' is not, like 'enigma,' an intricate problem that can be solved with the tools of reason. On the contrary, it resists rational explanation and refers to a plane that transcends it. To discuss Roemmers' novel," explained the renowned Argentine writer and essayist.

According to Lojo, one of the aspects that distinguishes the novel is manifested in a divine language “that puts listeners in direct contact with a supernatural dimension .”

Regarding Alejandro Tobosa, one of the supporting characters in The Mystery of the Last Stradivarius , he said that the officer “has given up his violin in the purest gesture of self-sacrifice, despite all the risks. Demoted and exonerated from the police force, condemned to a menial job, he drags out a miserable existence, afraid that his enemies will find him and take revenge. He has lost “his positive attitude, his blind faith in humanity.”

He also emphasized that "on the tortuous path of history, despite the flaws or aberrant crimes of its eventual interpreters, the music of the Stradivarius opens mystical bridges toward communion with the absolute , where everything seems to find meaning, even the darkness, even that which we cannot understand from our limited humanity. Perhaps for this reason, the best way to close the invitation to read this beautiful book are the words of Saint Augustine that the other Alexander, Roemmers, puts in the mouth of Sister Felicitas: "Because just as a painting, when the color black is placed in its proper place, is beautiful, so the world, if one could see it, even with the same sinners, is beautiful," Lojo concluded.

Finally, the most anticipated words, from Alejandro Roemmers, as the grand finale for the presentation of his novel , The Mystery of the Last Stradivarius. "The only thing left for me to say is thank you to all of you who came today, to those who are with me here at the table and who were kind enough to read my book before it was even published, and who have analyzed it with such affection.

Roemmers, author of sixteen works (eleven books of poetry and five other novels), thanked "Mario Vargas Llosa, who is no longer with us but has left me an indelible memory with his prologue, his son Álvaro and Patricia, Mario's widow, "who are with me today," and those present at the table. He also did not forget Hebe, his mother, who instilled music in him so much, and all his friends present in the room.

Finally, Roemmers concluded with the following statement: “The violins have survived, as has the human species. This confirms that the human spirit, above all, love, is our last frontier , art, in the face of the advance of dehumanization, the mechanization of everything that seeks to transform human beings.”

Next came the presentation of flowers to Mirtha Legrand and her mother Hebe, to close the presentation of The Mystery of the Last Stradivarius with the signing of copies.