Fernando Benzo Sainz (Madrid, 1965) broad literary career He started construction at a very young age when he was a graduate of the Faculty of Law and a State Civil Authority. He was Minister of State for Culture in the Mariano Rajoy Government and is now Director General of Sports of the Community of Madrid, but prefers not to mix the two fields. Winner of the Azorín 2023 award persecuted feeling trapped double forever and drawn as a writer on the dark side of society. The biggest dizziness right now is the desire to see the publication of Planeta’s novel, which will be published in April, and to catch up with the reader.
How did you sleep?
It was very difficult for me because adrenaline keeps me from sleeping and it was a very adrenaline filled experience. Gala is very exciting, the wait, when you suddenly hear your name and the name of the novel, before, during, after, it gets on your nerves and today I still feel like I was hit with a stick. too many emotions. I still find it hard to believe that everything that happened yesterday happened. It’s a very nice experience.
I don’t know if you know that RAE allows for emphasis once again. Only. What are you thinking?
my god! I was a militant of that period and I would go to the battlefield for him. I saw this this morning and there are people sending messages saying they are very happy for my award, but much more for the accent. Only. Me too (laughs). Seems like a big mistake to me and a big victory for the tilde fans.
Are you applying for the Azorín Prize for the first time?
No. I first introduced myself more than thirty years ago when I was a very young writer and before my collaboration with Planeta de la Diputación de Alicante, which they say started 30 years ago. It was such a dazzling award, I was so young, I was so unaware, I presented my first novel to myself and didn’t win. It took me a while to win, but here I am.
And did you publish it?
Yes. happy birthday and he felt like he was writing a masterpiece. I don’t know if I was 19 or 20, I was extremely proud of my novel and submitted it to this award, among others.
What prompted you to reintroduce yourself now?
Some things in life come back. Azorín has always seemed to me to have a lot of literary appeal, an ingredient that as an author he wants to give his books not only to win an applause award, but also as a way to recognize your literary creativity. Azorín has a very special personality, and decades later when I presented myself again for an award, I realized that’s what I wanted to win. And I love that it bears his name. The Azorín is a touchstone and a tremendous literary power and award sponsored by it reinforces this.
Did it take you long to write? persecuted?
Too much. Since it is a novel with a very complex structure, time jumps and plot that needs to come together like puzzle pieces, I do not understand how time flies. The preparation took a long time, there is so much documentation because it is intended to describe different periods of our history and to understand it I had to absorb those periods and details. I can say that it took me a year to write this and a year and a half before that.
What does a politician do in literature?
I am not a politician.
Well, a political ruler.
Look, I’m a public administrator with various responsibilities, but if you like something, you always find time, the days are very long. For me, writing is definitely a profession, I’ve had it since I was young and I’ve never quit. Somehow, you find the formula for combining that kind of weird dual personality that I’ve always experienced in my case: that public figure as a political executive and a writer. They are two lives that I keep largely separate. I’m not going to tell you about the other part here. Always Dr. I say I lived the life of Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but I never know which one I am Jekyll and which one Hyde (laughs).
Because he always carried them in parallel…
Always and without passing. If I’m talking about literature, I’m not talking about my job, it’s something I have in principle because it has nothing to do with it.
what counts persecuted?
It is the story of those who are not heroes of stories. We all tend to write about the good guys or the heroes, and I set out to tell a story about the bad guys, the bad guys. This is a novel with characters such as thieves, murderers, smugglers, corrupt cops, corrupt politicians, and I wanted to tell their stories and adventures. It’s a detective novel, action and adventure, but I also wanted to go to another dimension because no one is a 24-hour killer and I wanted to tell their stories of love, friendship, family… and build a universe. In circles covering different stages of Spanish history from the 70s to the present. Yes, a very ambitious novel where all the characters pursue one thing: some need to escape from a very marginal origin; The hero, a journalist who unmasks all these characters, pursues the weight of a father who is a legend in journalism… There are different atrocities. But above all I wanted to make a novel that captured a lot. My passion for this book is that once you enter, you swallow the pages and don’t want to leave.
He says it’s a very dark novel.
The novel shows that evil or guilt is always present and changing its forms. The characters in the novel are unlike each other when they become young slashers and eventually the bosses of the international mafia. The dark or perverted side of society is not something new, it is something historical that accompanies us as a society, it just changes its face.
Is it easy or risky to talk about traitors and political corruption living in the world of politics?
(laughs) It’s absurd to deny that there are and have been cases of political corruption as in other fields, and that’s a literary element and gives you space to write novels. It doesn’t scare me. If you describe crime in our country, it would be hypocritical to deny that it exists, and I have no intention of hiding it. It makes sense that in a crime story, they would encounter political corruption at some point. Current life would also include a few novels (laughs).
He had a miserable life in another of his novels.
The dark side has always appealed to me and ashes of innocence I wrote a story about black market gangs in post-war Madrid, and then another, we were never heroesHer fight against ETA with a retired police officer who can catch the terrorist she’s always been after, and now this novel. The dark side of man attracts as a writer and gives a lot of room to tell stories.
Is it a line that is always present in your novels?
Well, it’s not intentional, now that you’re asking it seems to have a logic, but I’m not aware of it. The world of journalism also offers many literary and cinematographic plays, which I find attractive. As a reader or viewer, I think I write what I like to read and know, and these stories take a certain direction when they pop up in my head.
Is this award a turning point in your literary career, do you intend to dedicate yourself more to it?
I should have won many more Azorín awards (laughs). No, this award, as I said yesterday, is a literary boost of self-confidence and a high peak that is not easy to maintain. Now it’s time to deliver the novel to bookstores and find out if it was liked and if the readers reacted. It’s unknown whenever you release a novel, there is no formula and it’s so dizzying. I’m feeling on top this morning, but everybody knows what’s going to happen next.
The difference is that the focus is greater now.
But the lights go out fast. The spotlight is huge right now, but one has enough experience to know that the dazzling spotlights are then extinguished.
Is the dizziness greater now or will it be in the next novel?
No. Dizziness right now as the novel unfolds to know if this story that I believe so much in and into which I have put so much into it will be interesting. It’s a mystery. For now I don’t know what the next one will be.
Among your favorite novels of 2022 I saw that love songby Carlos Zanon and All that matters is in the songsFernando Navarro’s photo. Music another passion?
I love it. In my previous novel, Milky Way PassengersIt’s about a group of friends in Madrid in the 80s, I used music a lot. And a good novel that naturally adds rock or music to the story catches me. I also liked these two very much, the music is a character in the stories, it does not interfere with the capon, it gives a voice to them.
In this audio-visual world, is it a miracle to write and be read more?
We writers are starting to get weird (laughs), but the recent reading surveys continue to amaze me because luckily there still seems to be people who want to read the stories we freaks have to offer.
Does being a writer give you time to become a reader?
Too much. I’m a writer, a reader, and I’m sleepy, so I get very little sleep. When I’m involved in a novel, I take time to write, and when I’m not writing, I take time to read. I’m currently reading like dust in the windBy Leonardo Padura and I really like it and I just finished a long pending topic, Fortunata and Jacintaand it took me a long time to read it, but it’s a success. You don’t have to be afraid of the classics.
How is it organised? when do you write
sleep less I often write at unattractive hours, such as between 5 and 7:30 in the morning. I sleep very little, but I wake up very fresh. I have three kids and these are great watches because people are sleeping and the house is quiet. And when I get home in the afternoon, I review that day. The key is to write permanently, not stop and do it every day. A somewhat strange life, but very productive, very active hours.
And with so much autofiction in literature, wouldn’t you turn your political life into a novel?
Never. I’m not just a politician, I’m a high official, but I don’t have fun either, I prefer to invent. First, I’m not an exhibitionist and I wouldn’t talk about my own life, and I’ve had some very interesting but special experiences. I’m interested in people who read my stories, I don’t intend to be a character, I’m not interested.