Olga Merino impeccably novelized the stories of the Sovietized Spanish children , those sent from the Republican side who became adults in Russia with the serious identity problems that their situation in Red Ashes (1999) entailed . And today he applies the same thoroughness and depth to a woman who settles in her old town in La forastera (Alfaguara). A book of return, back to origins contaminated by the corners, the legends around various suicides, from an empty Spain that is not welcoming.
"Without wishing it, a song of freedom and resistance came out," says Merino (Barcelona, 1966). My protagonist returns to a remote place and has to resist with very few financial resources, a house that falls apart. It is a small light, because the origin was a certain obsession of mine with the suicide of a friend whose father had committed suicide at the same age. "
Merino also tells us his readings in confinement:
- Diaries , Iñaki Uriarte, Pumpkin Nuggets.
- The suitcase , Sergey Dovlátov, Editorial Fulgencio Pimentel.
- The End of the Affair , Graham Green, Asteroid Books.
- My dear. Letters to Galdós . Emilia Pardo Bazán, Turner.
- Still life , Miquel Molina, Edhasa.