writer from Madrid Lawrence Silva “investigate” a crime the way of santiago in his latest novel ‘La lama de Focea’.
Did you have to walk the Camino to write this novel? Or was it not exactly like that?
No, the truth is, I admit that I didn’t do the Camino de Santiago and I’ve been thinking about it for years, the thing is, since I want to do it well, I want to complete it on time. Even though I didn’t go and segment it, I couldn’t find what I needed those fifteen days in a row. What I did to write this novel was to approach a few places on the Camino that came up later.
The plot revolves around the murder of a pilgrim. As if inspired by a true event.
Yes, the idea came to me recently after a pilgrim was killed. The crime caught my attention because, among other reasons, it was very difficult to resolve due to the lack of a previous relationship between the victim and the killer. But it is also true that for years I have wanted, even out of necessity, imposed Bevilacqua’s Galician novel and concluded that the Camino was the best way to approach the character of Galicia and its people.
A nod to Domingo Villar in ‘La llama de Focea’ (Ed. Destino). Your homage to the author from Vigo?
Completely. As I was writing, Domingo Villar passed away and the truth is I am very sad. He was a great friend, a wonderful person, and a wonderful writer, and so I decided that Bevilacqua, who had never read a detective novel, would make an exception and start reading one of his novels. As well as a tribute, it’s my way of combating this inertia that occurs when a writer dies and is nothing but oblivion. Neither his personality nor his work deserves to be forgotten.
The methods and personalities of Leo Caldas and Bevilacqua are different. However, I noticed that they are somewhat similar, but as what?
They are very different crime investigators, but what they do is practice gentle, compassionate irony.
And a ‘black shadow’ with Rosalian overtones in Leo’s case, and does it come from the fight against terror in Bevilacqua?
Bevilacqua’s ‘black shadow’ is not just due to years of fighting against ETA. Suppose he is the wrong man, in a certain period of his youth, involved in complex matters, trying to get to know himself a little through his work as a civil guard. Criminal activity is complex in itself, forcing you to make daily contact with dark worlds and memorizing what happened to you when you were younger. However, because he knows that he has to live with the past, he both gets used to it and learns to prevent that heavy baggage from becoming a burden.
Maybe that’s why you describe him as a tough guy on the outside, but on the inside…
Inside, everything that happens to him affects him because he is a sensitive man, and although he seems indifferent, he has long been dealing with the suffering of others, trying to learn to read and decipher it, and perhaps for this reason. does not result in desensitization, unlike what happens to others. I know several senior police officers and civilian guards, and I know that no one came out of all this unscathed emotionally.
You add one more framework to Galicia and Camino, Catalonia. Did “processes” produce monsters, as did “sleep”?
A little yes. We in Catalonia are surprised that in a society that exemplifies being the cradle and habitat of pragmatic and prudent people, common sense has become numb to the point of defending a divided and confronting political project. society in Catalan… And completely in vain! Without any tangible results. While presenting the character of the murdered girl’s father, I tried not to fall into Manichaeism.
Deep down, is he another victim?
In a way, yes, because being so committed to that cause makes him break even with his daughter.
There is another tribute in the novel that you pay to the women of the Civil Guard.
I think that in a novel the writer should do everything possible to show the facts. And in this novel, I confined myself to pointing out the fact that 30 years ago no woman would be involved in this kind of investigation, but now it is. Thus in ‘La llama de Focea’ the judge is a woman, the principal inspector is a woman, Chamorro who led the case in Bevilacqua’s absence, and the local inspector is a Galician civil guard woman who knows the grounds well. Woman. It is clear that the landscape has changed. The female investigators I met were very systematic and gave very good results, although it is not known or said that the Civil Guards in particular played very important roles in the fight against terrorism and achieved great success.
Do you find it increasingly difficult to find cases where your Bevilacqua fits, or on the contrary, do they turn out more smoothly?
I had some kind of curve with Bevilacqua. There was a moment when I was with him for 15 years, is that too long, I was thinking how am I going to continue without repeating myself, so I had to reinvent a bit and there I was. found a certain difficulty. But beyond that, the knowledge I had at this point in the character made having him almost an advantage, not a hassle or a bottleneck.
Like Leo Caldas, your researcher has the same birthday as you…
It is a resource that I use intuitively. When I wrote Bevilacqua’s third novel, I realized that a static character didn’t work for me, I didn’t find it believable. And what I discovered over time was that this was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, because it not only allowed me to work with a dynamic, evolving character, but also helped me adapt to the changing circumstances of his character. worked.
Andrea Camilleri wrote Montalbano’s last novel and gave it to the publisher for posthumous publication? Do you have anything like this running through your mind? Or finish Bevilacqua with a ‘murmur’?
The thing about Camilleri is that it didn’t even occur to me. And at least for now, I won’t kill Bevilacqua, and I’m in no rush to do so. He’s a character I live with in a friendly and productive way. And you don’t want these things to end, but I’m also aware that everything in life will always end. When it comes, it must be recognized.