related to in the lion’s den, author Elvira Lindo says readers always want to learn a little more about the questionable plot. It tells the difficult stories of a helpless girl and her mother, who gave birth to her when she was 16, without any profession to raise her. He also says that the music that accompanies this story is traditional music from the salvadas, Rincón de Ademuz, and that the music played while the baker kneads the bread stands out as the soundtrack, the Italian songs that flood everything. . Lindo chatted with her readers yesterday as part of the Meets with Authors cycle.
In The Wolf’s Den he tells the story of a girl named Juliet, who is also her mother and grandmother. How do you deal with the writing of three women who are so different but from the same family?
It is very difficult for me to summarize because somehow the arguments become very simple when we summarize. It is a small town with a lot of women but also men. The main voice is carried by Juliet, an eleven-year-old girl, then the woman in the forest, who is Emma, but around her we know her mother, grandmother, neighbors. .. My goal was for everyone to have a moment where they can express themselves. The hero’s own voice listens to what others say, we listen to the woman he trusts, we know something about the mother, a strange, inexperienced, and irresponsible woman, but we also know something about a woman he represents, called Virtudes. The good in town is not because I want her to be, but because she is a kind woman and there is a very important man in the novel, that is Leonardo. I believe there is an ensemble where Julieta sings all her time devoted to observing her.
You pick up Julieta from Valencia and take her to a much smaller place. As a child, you had to move many times as well. Did you use this experience to transport your hero to such a small village?
I used it to mean that my mother was from that land, Rincón de Ademuz, that is, between transfers, in a very nomadic family, that area was where we spent our Christmas and summer holidays… The place has a lot of symbology. for me, because this is my childhood. At first I thought it was like reuniting with the ghost of my childhood that was still there, but then I forgot the nostalgic idea of doing the opposite: someone who got there and didn’t want to leave and had strong reasons to go. I don’t want to leave Being in that village adapted from a real village called Skew, knowing that nature very well, and suddenly I felt that this is where I needed to place the story.
Even when you were little you didn’t like school, until you came to Mallorca, where you first felt good, there’s something wrong with this girl and she’s suddenly not doing very well in school…
No need to look for parallels with my life because he’s a completely invented character. I also wanted to stand out from my own story and create a strong character, maybe when I look at him, he looks a little like me, but not at all like my story.
Is “in the lion’s den” a synonym for patriarchy?
No, it’s a fitting expression for this story, again set in a forest, with so many similarities to fairy tales and fables, I thought it perfectly illuminates and describes it.
Is this the way of expression sought among? income And have children’s stories or history drifted to this rhythm?
Depending on the story you want to tell, you should think very carefully about how you want to deliver it. In this case, this whispering and psychological thriller for the childhood helplessness that was so sensitive that I wanted to tell was just the tone I was looking for.
As is so often the case in towns and families, there are many silences, secrets and things known and unsaid and another pillar of history.
The untold is important because I didn’t want it to be obvious or turn into drama. I do not know if there is more silence in a small community than in a large one, of course, the characters I create have a great desire for communication, and often in a city it seems to you that there is more communication and not so. I don’t think there is less communication in a small town.
A writer may have the idea to write a novel the moment he has to, or he may ponder over the idea for years until he finds a way to say it, how did this come about? in the lion’s den?
It was like a collision, it was very fast, I suddenly felt that I could place a story in this environment of overwhelming and beautiful nature, and the story suddenly came to my mind, but you can write with your experience, you can’t. a gap As much as this pre-adolescence you thought you had invented, there are many things in your life at once, many people you observe, listen to, and help you with in creating character.
The book talks about very serious things like young children left homeless or mothers who don’t want to be, and why are muted truths still taboo even today when we know these topics are there?
I believe that no matter how society develops, human mistakes will inevitably repeat, because I think it has improved and even more so in a country like Spain, but there are always secrets and things that are kept hidden, so there are things that we can’t explain ourselves, and that’s why boy or girl can’t control it. and is left alone in situations that he does not understand very well. Society can improve, laws can improve, school accountability for them can improve, family can improve, but there will always be situations of abandoned children because when a person is young they have no weapons to protect themselves.
box literature at least what does it have to do with the protection of minors?
I have no therapeutic desire, many people have already read the book, although it is out recently and there are people it can help with, for example, reading helps me understand the world, with reading you understand people who are very different. from you, or from a situation, or suddenly, something mysterious becomes something clear but not because I’m trying to send any message. I’m always very loyal to the characters I create and I allow them to act with a certain freedom, I don’t hold back, I make them talk while I’m talking. They are often the victims of difficult situations, but I have to let the story flow. This girl needs to talk, but I let her find the speaking moment in the book that wasn’t on the first page.
Did any of the characters surprise you by wanting to go somewhere you didn’t plan to write?
You have to immerse yourself in the personality and character of the characters, I knew what I wanted to tell and the end of the story, but the road is always mysterious, you always illuminate what you are telling with very little light. I have perfect control of the story, the characters, and where I want to go, but it’s true that there are moments when a certain personality of a character gets you hooked and immersed in it.