2023-05-10 15:46:50
The versatile journalist Irene Junquera just published his first novel “All the time we have left.” The publication is presented on Wednesday, May 10 at 7:00 p.m. in the Semuret bookstore and the author will be accompanied by Cristina Casado.
–You have worked in different registers of journalism and now you are making the leap to writing creative.
–I jump first because of a wish that I have had for a long time. I really like to write, but it is true that I had never written such an extensive text. I had a meeting with Planet. In it, one of the editors told me that he was following me, that he thought I could write, and offered me the chance to publish fiction. I had previously been offered to write some non-fiction that had a relationship between women and sports journalism, which I didn’t feel like. However, this proposal was different, it changed everything.
–What prompted you to face the blank trade?
–It is one more way of communication and it is added to the fact that I really like to read. It was a challenge for me to be capable, as I have been, and it was something that I really wanted, in fact, it was not something that took me long to decide.
How have you combined writing with your professional activity?
–I have taken time with something as easy as how I am autonomous and I have given up some things to be able to write. It is also a matter of organizing and depending on the time that I had available, I dedicated to it.
–You have opted for a novel starring a girl who lives in a big city. Because?
–I thought about various ideas and one day I came up with one as a child in which I could recount her entire life journey. She wanted to tell the yokes they had to go through before and also see it reflected in situations that we women have to live today.
–Female novel and feminist?
It’s a costumbrist novel. It is feminine, since the protagonist is a woman, and it is feminist seen from the current prism since it talks about psychological abuse, classism or the problems of a woman to be able to work. Things that happened before and that many continue to happen. Many people, unfortunately, who are going to feel identified with aspects that are addressed in the novel.
“I have carried out a more exhaustive documentation on how people spoke, what they ate or how they dressed, for which I have turned to my mother, my aunts and even my grandmother in her day, with whom I talked a lot”
–The one located in the Spain of the 60s, a moment that you have not lived, how has it been documented?
–The historical framework is simpler, since you use books and even movies, but I have carried out a more exhaustive documentation on how people spoke, what they ate or how they dressed, for which I have resorted to my mother, my aunts and even from my grandmother in her day, with whom I talked a lot. Through these conversations I have been able to make up how she lived at this time in Madrid.
–Elena, the protagonist, does she have anything from Irene Junquera?
–I would say that there is something of me in all the characters in some way, because I created them and you inadvertently leave something from your experiences. Perhaps in the character where there is more of me is in Juanita, the best friend of the protagonist. She is a very vital person who always encourages her friend. My mother was a girl who went to Madrid as a child with a relative and when writing I remembered her a lot.
“I am a great reader, but being on the other side has been exciting”
–How much time have you spent in the gestation of the novel?
–About a year and a half, focusing on writing for practically a year. Writing the novel has meant discovering a whole new world that I’m not used to and that I love. I’m a big reader, but being on the other side has been exciting. I have written a novel, but I think that being called a writer is still too big for me. I was afraid at first when it was published about the reception of the novel by the reader, because a lot of love and work has gone into it, but I am very happy. The book has been out for three weeks and I am very satisfied with the reception.
– Have you already participated in major literary events?
–Yes, to Sant Jordi and it was a brutal experience. It was full of readers. I had never experienced it in situ and there are all the current authors. The truth is that I did not expect it to be so many people and it was very exciting. I am going to participate in various small book fairs and I am also going to attend the Madrid Book Fair. The presence in it makes me very excited because since I was a child I have come as a reader.
–Many authors say that they write the novel that you would like to read. Has this been the case for you too?
– When I sat down to write it I didn’t really think about it. It came out like this. (laughs). Many people have been surprised that he chose this novel instead of a crime novel, since he has many followers who are men. Maybe I could have written something else, but that’s what came out. I read a lot of traditional, historical novels, essays and also biographies.
#discovered #fiction #writing #love