Francisco Umbral’s novels and outspoken newspaper columns made the acerbic writer a household name in Spain. In this program, “the angry man of Spanish letters”—in one of his last interviews before his death at age 72—holds forth on topics related, on the one hand, to his deep and unswerving passion for language and writing and, on the other, to Franco: facets of life under the regime and his recollection of the day the dictator died. Standouts among his more than 80 books include La Forja de un Ladrón, La Belleza Convulsa, Mortal y Rosa, La Noche que Llegué al Café Gijón, Un Carnívaro Cuchillo, Teoría de Lola, El Fulgor de África, Diario de un Snob, and Historias de Amor y Viagra. (Spanish, 25 minutes)