He sits at the other end of the table and clasps his hands together as if to embark on an air battle where the one in front of him wishes the other victory. He will use this gesture, which unites the eyes, the mouth, the whole face, many times in his life, with the desire to make the whole life of the person in front of him go well, not just this fence that is talking. . They your book, novels Dealing with the evils of the 20th century, read by millions of people in many languages, Characters that are full of wars and bad intentions, but who want justice and certain forms of happiness to survive, come to the fore. She comes from journalism and political journalism, which has a sharp nature like life itself but peaceful, she is completely out of this profession and now defined by the hope in humanity from 1953. looking at your books. The face he looks at inspires the idea of asking him about the origin of everything, so we talked as if no one had heard us.
The German poet Michael Krüger has this line: “Sometimes childhood sends me a postcard / Do you remember?” What postcards does childhood send you now?
We cannot express ourselves without our childhood. And you reach an age when you realize that you have been collecting postcards from childhood. For example, I remember many afternoons when my grandmother taught me to read: “repeat, start over, sing…” And I just wanted to play. [risas]. But later on I think I’m a good reader thanks to him.
What did he read to you?
He made me read everything. Even books I don’t understand. But because I am a reader thanks to him, I do not forget that postcard. He told me that I should read every day and that there will come a time when reading becomes a necessity for me. And this has come true: the habit of reading has become a pleasure.
Many years have passed since then, especially since October 8, 1953…
I wasn’t born on the eighth of October, Juan! Everyone reads it on the Internet, but I was born on July 29. Tired of saying that October 8th is not my birthday! But people don’t care. On the internet it says October 8th, well… I get flowers, I get chocolates, and I have to celebrate my birthday twice. [risas].
And what do you attribute this error to?
Well, I don’t know exactly. Like on the internet, people put in what they want and it can’t be fixed, well… Let’s see: I don’t really care. Because look, now that you’ve said about childhood postcards: it bothered me that I couldn’t celebrate my birthday with my friends, because on July 29 you are always on vacation and school is closed. So… I think it’s great to celebrate the eighth of October with a lot of people. [risas].
What did learning to read mean to you?
It meant opening a door that I didn’t know where it would lead. And that feeling still exists today. It’s like Alice walking through the mirror. This feeling: where am I going.
What was the first book that caught your attention?
When I was a kid, my grandmother made me read classic books: Helena of Troy wave adventure in comics… Then he gave me other authors he thought would interest me. For example, Jane Austen, because she loves him. I must have been seven or eight years old and I was already reading this.
What did those books say about you?
I do not know well. What those books did was expand my world. I read on a balcony and from that moment knew beyond my balcony that there were places and things to explore.
When did you realize that life is serious as Jaime Gil de Biedma said?
I think… maybe… in adolescence. Because at that stage there is a loss of innocence. First of all, because you had to know and face what was far from home.
But there danger combined with knowledge, right?
Well, from a very happy childhood, I had to seriously face my lessons, realizing that home is not the center of the world as it is. In other words: things started to get stricter. But you also noticed that someone was channeling. Later, I had a literature teacher who was decisive in my becoming a journalist. I wanted to study physics, but he told me ‘writing is what you’re good at’. And yes, I wrote stories.
Do you remember any of these stories?
Yes, I remember the story of a dog and a lamppost. The dog was with its owner, they stopped at a traffic light and the dog started talking to a lamppost. What nonsense isn’t it? [risas]. I had a lot of imagination and when I was little I also claimed that I was a fairy and could talk to animals and certain objects and see beings that others did not see. And I was so convinced that I was a fairy that one day I almost broke my neck. One day my mom brought me a beautiful red umbrella from London and I called all the kids in my classroom and my neighborhood, we sat across from the Senate and I climbed a wall to show them that I was going to throw myself and fly with my umbrella. At that moment, my mother looked out onto the balcony and screamed, ran downstairs, and my fairy career ended here.
But with a fairy mentality, nothing can surprise him, right?
No. Everything surprises me. Honestly, I would love to be a fairy. But with this reality check… I had to assume the trees were not talking to me, the streetlights were not talking…. That this magical world does not exist and that I am like everyone else and that I have to work. And that was hard to accept, huh. It was like giving up a part of you. The world he had built was useless when it came to aging. This was yes and had to be accepted.
How did this encounter with reality?
Hard. The moment I called the children to show me that I was a fairy with my red umbrella, they all laughed and waited for me to fall so they could laugh more.
How was your relationship with your parents at home?
With my mom. I lived with my grandfather and mother. I had a happy childhood with my dog, my cousins, my grandmother, especially my grandmother.
What did you learn as a teenager?
Pain. Adolescence is a time of big changes. Strong. Some are painful.
How did he overcome this pain?
I’m not sure I’m controlling the pain. You learn to live with it. But life is part of learning.
Can you share?
Yes, he had a lot of friends. When I stopped being a fairy, I had no problems. A friend from school, whom I hadn’t seen in years, came to the Madrid Book Fair the other day and said that he remembered me above all when I was reading a book. Reading and not playing too much. Maybe I don’t know. Because if I got excited about a book, it was very hard for me to put it down. And it seemed to me that the best plan was to read.
What books influenced you at this time in your life?
My grandfather insisted that you read the classics. And sometimes I had fun with the classics, and sometimes I didn’t. But I could have bought any book, well, because they didn’t ban me from anything. I’m struggling to read and everything. I really liked the novels because they taught you other ways of life.
And you didn’t write at that time?
Yes, I wrote diaries. The truth is that separation from childhood was hard to overcome and you had to take shelter in something.
What was the most painful part of puberty?
Maybe infidelity. You learn that the people around you are not always what you think. Friends are very important to me, and it hurts to lose them, to have a disagreement with them… and to have the feeling that there is no glue to fix what’s broken.
And did she know that she fell madly in love during her adolescence?
Yes, of course. Adolescence is the discovery of everything.
Did you also see that being a journalist would not be bad?
It was time for confusion. From disappointment. He was learning that getting old means giving up. And it would be the circumstances that would really rule my life, not me. Perhaps this is seen in my novels. The desire to take the reins of your life, try to put circumstances in the background. But yes, I eventually chose journalism, and it was a huge passion, it gave me the tools to write, maybe even meet people I’ve never met. And you know, I really loved being able to live and tell the Transition. It was a time in our history that we should be proud of. The transition from dictatorship to democracy was a very intense thing. And I really enjoyed it.
It was a singular and interesting time to live as a journalist, yes. So, at what point did this journalism fail?
Well, things change. You can’t always live in absolute excitement. New generations are coming, they are doing journalism differently… But I don’t want to say that the past times are better because I’m more interested in the future. However, I believe that all is not well in the media. First of all, there are no journalist entrepreneurs anymore, the media is now in the hands of investment funds and this makes a difference. The insecurity of employment. New technologies too.
When you quit journalism…
… when it was already very uncomfortable for me! When you are no longer satisfied with what has been done, when the idea begins to prevail over knowledge, when the meeting of opposites increases… I don’t know. I didn’t like this.
He abandoned journalism and embraced fiction, but based on fact..
Yes, I guess because of his journalistic legacy, which is no small thing. Being a journalist has allowed me to live many lives and meet many people, and has given me many tools to write. And there it is, I didn’t like being in social gatherings, they sounded like perverts to me and… Soap operas gave me, first of all, the opportunity to see what was behind the decisions we humans made.
What have you learned by approaching reality from fiction?
Perhaps being much more benevolent towards others and myself, namely the human condition.