The writer Ken Follet (Cardiff, 72 years old) made his first steps in journalism back in the 70s. As part of his job he visited some
hippie
communes that later served as inspiration for his novel
In the mouth of the dragon
, published in 1998 The book tells the story of a group of California
hippies
who, seeing the environment in which they inhabit their way of life threatened, become radicalized to the point of threatening the government with the destruction of the entire city.
EL PAÍS recovers this title as part of the
Black Novel collection
.
The best writers of this genre will arrive at the newsstand every Sunday with the newspaper and will be available on the Collections website for €5.95.
Follet, who responds to the EL PAÍS interview by email, stars in the second installment, on May 29.
Ask.
He published
In the Dragon's Mouth
in 1998. Has time treated the story well?
Answer
to.
I'm glad ecoterrorism is still rare.
The old school one, with bombs and guns, is bad enough.
Unfortunately, its potential is still there.
P.
When you return to books that are already traditional, how do you feel about your writing?
R.
My way of writing has changed, I'm still learning about literature, but despite everything I'm proud of my old books.
I have dedicated my life to writing stories for readers to enjoy, and I think I have succeeded.
Q.
And when you meet the characters again?
R.
_
It's strange.
I have created thousands of characters and have forgotten all but the most important ones.
So for me an old book is full of surprises.
I'm intrigued by the characters, and sometimes I say to myself: How did I come up with that?
Q.
The novel takes place in a
hippy
commune .
Was he a sympathizer of this movement in the sixties?
A.
Yes. There were a lot of communes in Wales, where I was a reporter in the early 1970s, and I visited the places and interviewed the people.
For some of them it was really the best way of life.
P.
In this story we have a group of characters, with a just cause, but who are radicalized.
The reader enters into an internal debate: does the end justify the means?
Did he want to embarrass the reader?
R.
The drama of a novel always increases if there is a moral dilemma.
That complicates the characters and the story, and makes both more interesting and exciting.
P.
We live in a time of great concern for the environment.
Can this change the reader's empathy for the characters?
A.
I'm not sure.
It is easy to sympathize with the terrorists' claims from a distance.
But terrorism has come closer to all of us since I wrote this book, and I think that makes it harder for us to understand terrorists when they try to justify their point of view.
P.
What does not change, despite the time, is the interest of readers in crime novels.
How would you explain this fascination?
R.
I constantly read police and mystery novels.
My current favorite is Donna Leon.
As human beings we are hungry for explanations, and in detective fiction we know for sure that in the end we will understand everything.
Still life from the EL PAÍS collection 'Novela negra'.
'Black novel', the masters of the genre in a collection
The first installment of the
Black Novel
collection will be,
Falcó
, by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, on Sunday 22. The protagonist of this story, Lorenzo Falcó, is already a classic of the genre in Spanish.
As the author himself described it in a presentation, it is about “an elegant pimp, an amoral type, an unscrupulous adventurer;
he is capable of torturing and killing, but he is also funny, likeable, intelligent”.
Then it will be Follet's turn with
In the mouth of the dragon
and then the
Black Novel
collection will be completed with other masters of the genre, such as the French Pierre Lemaitre, winner of the European Black Novel Award among other recognitions;
or one of the greatest international references of intrigue: Stephen King.
The collection includes his work
From him Joyland
, a disturbing story about an amusement park and an old crime.
Norwegians Jo Nesbo and Anne Holt, two of the most successful writers in all of Scandinavia, will follow on the list of authors.
Another best seller, this time of judicial plots, John Grisham is present with the
thriller The Swindler
, which starts with the murder of five judges.
The collection will be completed with 25 titles.