After selling thousands of copies with his trilogy Inspector Ana Arenreplaces the case and puts its new voltage in front of it, Crime (Espasa), coroner and journalist. Now on Tele 5, as did Carme Chaparro (Barcelona, 1973), who has been in front of the cameras for nearly 30 years. women power, and added a lot of gasoline to her face as a writer, leading her to win the Spring Novel Award in 2017. i am not a monster. He will talk about his new book, now in its fourth edition, at 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Maestral Literary Evenings in Alicante. And this will be his second time.
It hasn’t been out for a month Crime and it’s already going through four editions. So later they say people don’t read.
The fact is that the avalanche of readers, their success, love, enthusiasm amazes me. There is a general stream of enthusiasm for Crime It makes me so happy.
Crime He takes as his starting point an enigmatic and shocking event, the mass suicide (in principle) of ten apparently unknown people from a hotel in Madrid. You have to give a lot to your imagination…
The bad guys really have more imagination. But the beginning suddenly came to my mind. I was coming home by taxi in the evening, tired, I closed my eyes so that I wouldn’t get dizzy, opened my eyes because the taxi was changing lanes, and found myself looking at the hotel in the Plaza de España, that huge wall of windows. like a beehive. And all of a sudden I thought what would happen if ten people jumped out of here. What would be behind it? He could have let go or searched for the answer. And of course I looked for the answer. came from there Crime. How is it that ten strangers open ten windows in a row and throw themselves into the void without leaving any clue, with only one maiden, one with two candles in her hand. It is a novel that attracts people because it is very hectic, because it is full of pages full of what is going on, because it does not have a paragraph that does not make you feel different, and because everything falls together at the end, because nothing happens. it is useless and everything has a meaning.
How important are endings in novels?
Yes, the last is important, and especially in a thriller. Like a relationship, it’s great at the beginning and terrible when you finally break up, but you always remember that last memory. In a novel, the ending should be more impressive than the beginning, and the reader should not be disappointed for investing his time and money.
“In a novel, the ending should be more impressive than the beginning, and the reader should not be disappointed for wasting his time and money.”
To go further, they say that the tension has exceeded its limit. How would you explain this?
Just a little out of bounds. It is very difficult to explain without giving spoilers because something happens every moment. The hero is Santi Munárriz, forensic, talented, somewhat antisocial, ahead of everyone else, bored with life and does not want to feel anything, she has discovered that life is impossible without feeling and allowing herself. feel something Create a second self to have emotions. And that alter ego called Delito sings once a week in the Firefly room. Therefore, while it is a crime, it is an emotion and it is felt. This is complex.
What cross-cutting issues do you address in this plot?
Well, issues such as motherhood, which is perhaps the most universal theme in the world, the irrepressible desire of some women and the pain of being a mother; for rapes, sexual assaults, everyone’s health and everything that allows us to live longer and be cared for in the best conditions; loss, pain and guilt.
Heroes are a couple. There are always very clear patterns in crime novels, like a commissioner, a writer, a spy. You put a coroner and a journalist. Why these profiles?
Because they were born this way. It was something natural. I needed someone to open the bodies, and they had to be forensics, and I needed someone to provide another important pillar of the conspiracy, and that was natural because that’s what I was in control of and what I knew how to do. Also, Berta Gigliani is a well-known journalist and is afraid of being recognized on the street.
Don’t you have anything in that journalist?
Yes, because he suffers a lot, because he collects tragic films in his head. And in that sense he’s a lot like me, emotionally feeling guilty for a lot of things. There’s also another journalist, Filomena, in her fifties, already sweating, wearing make-up, she doesn’t shut up, that’s where I want to go. She is Zasca’s teacher.
“The role of the journalist is now more important than ever. Not for a healthy society, but for a democratic society”
In other words, it served as therapy.
Yes, always, always. I also have words from the Illuminada in my head and I publish them. I’m already practicing to be like him.
You tell true stories in front of the cameras and then you write fictional stories. Does this reality help you build your novels?
Of course they work for me. In the end, reality is reality that transcends fiction. And I build the novels on real things. All the procedures in my novels are real: figures, technological devices, data, and then a lot of what happened in my books were inspired by things that actually happened, happened.
Although the reality is sometimes confused because there is a lot of information pollution in the media, by those who hide what they know are not real and leave room for them on television; with fake news and through social networks where everything fits. How can we notify citizens of discrimination?
The role of the journalist is now more important than ever. I would even say for a democratic society, not for a healthy society. With so many stimuli, so much preconceived information and so many lies. When you want to be a self-determined citizen, you need to be aware of and understand what is going on around you. If you are surrounded by false or mundane information, you cannot see what is really going on. We journalists must tell the stories that need to be told and contextualize them to make them understandable and make the world around the citizen understandable so they can make an informed decision.
Does the struggle to be in the news or the struggle to add readers create more pressure?
Finally, you have a chance as a writer, once the novel is out of your hands, it is no longer yours. There are thousands of novels because every person who reads them is different. But reporting is a job for many people, but that can change. I no longer tell you from one day to the next, at the same time, instantly. More moldable. Pressure is what everyone applies. As a writer, you depend on the reader to make a living from literature, which is nearly impossible in this country, and you depend on a television boss.
Is the struggle for equality more complex on television or in literature?
In fiction, you create the world you want. In literature, you do what you want. The reader no longer cares whether you are a male or female writer, they care about the plot, what you like. This is already in the past. He cares if he gets carried away by what you wrote. On television, the image is much more important because you communicate with the clothes you wear, your movements, your voice… Television is a reflection of society and unfortunately tells us that a man’s white hair is priced, and a man’s hair is a price. Woman. woman no. There is a lot of pressure on women because of the image. But now I’m eating a plate of chips. I am very Philomena.
“TV is a reflection of society and unfortunately it tells us that a man’s white hair is listed and a woman’s is not”
She received the Observatory Against Domestic and Gender Violence Award in 2018. Do you think we’ve made progress?
I think we’re going backwards, there’s a lot of noise and inaccurate data, and the biggest tragedy of inequality is being put aside, which is a patriarchal society with femicide from below, where women are involved. Although we are 51 percent of the population, we have fewer opportunities. Then we get distracted by these silly arguments that matter. Citizens believe that feminists are feminazis, but that these men are not a war against women, but believe that we all have equal opportunities to have the best possible society. One of the biggest problems is that we only talk about reconciliation in women’s forums. Another is that we carry the great stress of achieving everything. Let’s see if it works and how to pick up the girl. It’s not about helping, it’s about sharing everything.
It was on Literary Evenings in 2017, and it’s repeating. What stands out in this literary and gastronomic experience?
This is a unique experience. The truth is, I’ve never been anywhere else like him. Fascinating, all writers want to go. It’s amazing that they make you a menu inspired by the novel, those who come to listen to you are the wine of your novel. It is an experience for the author, a gift, being able to share your novel with readers is one of the greatest gifts.