The Cádiz-born writer reflects on a shift in focus during a stalled writing moment. While drafting a different novel, a detour into a childhood landscape — the town of Ademuz in Valencia — unlocked the path to a story that had been waiting, difficult to approach. The moment felt both formative and elusive, like a scene that existed already and simply needed a way to be told.
By revisiting the emotional memory of youth, the author constructs a novel where childhood remains the narrative heart, a recurring center as seen in the author’s broader body of work. The texture of memory blends with fiction, yielding a work that many critics regard as the strongest in the author’s career. The sense of emotional involvement was so deep that finishing the book left a lingering melancholy, a feeling of not being able to step back into the world of those characters.
The story of eleven-year-old Julieta
En la boca del lobo follows the life of eleven-year-old Julieta, who spends a summer with her mother in La Sabina, a remote village that seems almost designed to pull her away. The narrator avoids naming or verbalizing certain harms, yet the tension remains palpable. The author describes portraying a child in a perilous situation without explicit disclosure, allowing readers to drift into the unsaid. The book is presented as a mystery framed by a girl’s vulnerability, where the danger lurks just beneath the surface.
In this manner, the Cádiz-born writer returns to pure fiction, crafting a personal literary space in the depopulated setting of La Sabina and its woods. The first image that came to mind was a girl and a woman conversing in the trees. This sparked a broader reflection on whether any part of us remains in places we loved, or if childhood’s ghosts linger in those places we once cherished.
It seems that only difficult childhoods matter; there is a trend to highlight all that is dark.
The author moves beyond nostalgia, creating a character who feels very present. The narrative does not recount the author’s own childhood; it revisits another life through a contemporary lens. This approach is described as therapeutic, offering relief as the writer revisits childhood with current perspectives. The creative process becomes a way to examine the past without indulging nostalgia, embracing a vivid sense of freedom from earlier years, yet without idealizing them.
The cast of characters travels through darkness, whether literal or symbolic, with several figures stepping into peril as if entering a modern retelling of classic fairy-tale journeys. The author sought a language close to poetry, with nature strongly present, while avoiding sensationalism. This aligns with a broader autofiction trend that often foregrounds the darker facets of childhood, yet the narrative avoids explicit sensationalism, preferring suggestion and atmosphere to drive the tension.
It is possible this is not the best novel, but the emotional engagement was profound
Childhood imagery recurs across the author’s bibliography, grounded in a fascination with vulnerable yet resilient young characters. The narrator reflects on how it feels to recall those years and what it reveals about today’s children. The Cádiz-born writer expresses a belief that such storytelling invites readers to see strength in youth and to recognize the imaginative power that can shelter young minds.
The ‘mother’ of Manolito Gafotas
The author has long been linked with a popular eight-volume series featuring Manolito Gafotas, a presence of which the narrator is proudly aware. The origin of the series is rooted in an oral tradition from the radio era, where voices and characters came alive through performance. This lived experience gave the characters a lasting vitality, transforming a spoken tale into a literary phenomenon. There is a sense that this character carries enduring appeal and cultural resonance.
Experience in cinema has also shaped the author’s career. Since the Manolito Gafotas film, involvement with screenwriting and adaptation has grown, and a recent directorial step was taken alongside Daniela Fejerman on a family-centered project. The collaboration offered new insights into how stories translate to the screen, revealing the challenges and rewards of moving from page to picture. The film explores intergenerational relationships among a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter, each with distinct concerns that the narrative captures with clarity and warmth.