Returned physically and emotionally native galician to construct a novel that is not based on a true event, but that could be excellent. The disappearance of two younger siblings, the search for the memory of a third girl who doesn’t remember anything 25 years later, the discovery of some bones, and a whole lot of intrigue. Susana Fortes gifts There is nothing to lose (Planet) on Friday Master Literature Evenings. (8:30 p.m.). “I find it very nice to mix literature and gastronomy,” says the author. albanian lover Y Quattrocento.
You have chosen a poem by Elizabeth Bishop for the title of your novel. There is nothing to lose.
the poem has a name the art of losing And it’s beautiful because it talks about how we start losing very early since we were born. First we lose the house we were born in, then our childhood, our keys, the people we love, the loves we thought were eternal… But he says nothing happens, that’s what living means. Life is about it. And the novel is about that and how we manage to move forward because there is a spirit of overcoming, we will lose something but we have to move forward.
The novel is about the disappearance of two brothers and how it affects the lives of those around them, is it the story of a quest?
Well, it is a quest, but what is sought is not always what it seems. There are two moments, two time axes. One is the events of the summer of 79, the disappearance of two children is a tragic event, and then a leap to 2004, 25 years later. The third missing girl shows up strangely and doesn’t remember but tries to get over these facts. 25 years pass, he goes to Copenhagen to work for a literary agency and has apparently left the past behind, but one day he receives a call from a journalist telling him that Mount Thecla is at an archaeological site of the Bronze Age. , a well-known site in Galicia, they found some bone remains that appeared to be their own. He gets shocked and decides to go back. One of the threads of the plot is the investigation of the journalist who wanted to pull the carpet even though it was already written about, because I like to justify the investigative journalism that has come up so much lately, because that’s the normal thing. the person charged with the investigation is a detective. The other thread is the memory that has encapsulated it and can no longer turn its back on it. Memory is something I am passionate about, a spear of defense and attack at the same time, always an area of risk. You get into that area and sometimes you find what you’re not looking for. In this quest, he rearranges people, conversations, to understand what might happen.
“Memory is a defense and also a spear of attack. It is always an area of risk”
Is it based on a true event?
No, the story is fiction, except for the beaches, the rivers, the name of the town I changed, As Covas, although the geographical locations are perfectly definable. It is a space where events actually take place, where many events occur. My grandmother used to tell me about missing children, about missing children. Things that impressed me a lot when I was younger.
And why this return to his native Galicia?
Since it was my mother’s birthday, I visited that area with the whole family and we toured the area where she was born and lived. One day, all of a sudden, without going too far, images started shooting up at me. From there I started to write a novel. That area is impressive. Galicia has a very strong nature.
Are there many parallels with current cases and also with cases in our historical memory?
It’s a different thing, although there are parallels, because there are many intersecting themes in the memory and the mansion that the children enter. That house was the seed of Deusto University and Comillas, and was also a concentration camp during the Civil War. More than 8,000 people crowded there and you still find flowers and signs with names. Now they call it the Gate of Hell. This makes it attractive to people.
Why did you feel the need to do a choir practice?
There are many voices that matter because everyone is saying something. But deep down there is an agreement of silence, hermetic universes that occur in Galicia but you can find in many places. A difficult and controversial past with scars still left.
“Romeo and Juliet would have been a soap opera had it not been masterfully written by Shakespeare”
The novel has elements of suspense and intrigue. Do they always work in literature?
I believe there is no literature without intrigue. We think it’s a detective and detective genre, but any novel, historical, romantic or fantastic, doesn’t exist unless there’s an intriguing plot to the reader. But on the other hand, there are many types of suspense, and the plot as a reader is not reduced to just solving a puzzle; I like that it goes a little further, that the mystery is a little deeper. So I tried to give strength to the plot of the characters and to move away from the most common suspense clichés. No chases, no car races, more of a Hitchcock thriller than James Bond. Knowing is a necessity, but not for sensation.
The present time is changing. Are the subjects of interest in literature also changing?
No. I think they have been the same since the Greeks: loss, loneliness, fear, enigma, adventure, risk, emotion, love… these have all been present since the Greeks. What has changed is the way you face it and treat it, but deep down I believe the species is a tradition and an excuse to talk about the issues that really matter to you. That’s the key. Your battlefield is how you write. All the themes of literature depend on how you describe it. Romeo and Juliet It could have been a soap opera if Shakespeare hadn’t written it masterfully. I bet a lot on this novel for the way it’s told. In fact, I hooked the novel when I had a clear narrative voice that was the first of its kind to be unorthodox in this genre, the first to draw close to the reader, but it worked for me, I guess.
“I believe genres are a tradition and an excuse to talk about things that really matter to you.”
Before the novel was published, translations had been agreed upon, and the three production companies were very interested in buying the rights and making a series. In the end, the strongest remained. It’s not very normal.
Yes, though, I hope the course of the book is predetermined. But I am very happy because it happened before the book went to the bookstores. I think it’s a very visual book, very transferable to a series. I hope it goes well.
Aren’t you a little afraid that the result might not be what you expected?
No, because I’m disconnecting myself from the show. I do not agree. My job is to write it. I am one of those who allow every professional to work in their field. And I really liked that this project came out, I’m very happy.