Lauren Beukes (Johannesburg, 47 years old) presented her latest novel translated into Spanish,
Bridge,
at the Aridane Criminal literature festival, held in January on La Palma.
Motherhood, feminism and violence against women are recurring themes in her texts, created from the South African worldview but located, on many occasions and out of pure commercial sense, in the United States.
Beukes gives an interview sitting on the terrace of a bar in Los Llanos de Aridane, immersed in a cloud of happy stupor brought on by the sun.
With her dyed pink hair shining under the rays of the sun, a flowered suit and closed-toe sunglasses, she talks about how being a woman and South African influences her work, her recent diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and the She moved two years ago, from her native South Africa (where her work was recognized and she was a media personality) to a London where she feels like a permanent beginner.
Ask.
How would you define his work?
Answer.
I am a South African novelist.
I grew up in South Africa and have lived in London for two years.
I think I write conceptual literary
thrillers
.
I like to write about social issues, about feminism, racism, poverty and violence, through this lens.
Maybe it's about a time-traveling serial killer, or a world where criminals keep magical animals, or someone who is creating strange monsters.
Or a journey through the multiverse to try to repair your relationship with your parents.
Q.
How is being a woman reflected in your work?
A.
The female experience is a vulnerable experience.
Especially when you have grown up in a country where violence against women is very common.
Right now I find it terrifying to see the extent to which the far right is pushing against feminism and how people like Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate and Brett Kavanaugh are brainwashing young people.
I also want to add that I firmly believe in the rights of trans women.
I believe that the fight should be intersectional.
We should not say what is a woman and what is not a woman.
But how to grow as a woman, being vulnerable and aware of social problems, while being aware of your own power.
And aware of how other people don't like that power.
The female experience is a vulnerable experience
Q.
How does South Africa influence what you write?
A.
I grew up under
apartheid
,
in a very racist, very violent State.
We had a chemical weapons program, like Mengele's, in which they tried to make black people sterile or infertile, using poison.
There were torture units to murder young activists of 18, 20 years old, and make their bodies disappear.
I think of places like Argentina and Spain... but South Africa is very recent, very hard, and I lived it.
I think that has made me very aware of social problems.
My parents weren't
anti-apartheid
activists or anything like that, but they were very involved in social justice, helping with [the NGO] Habitat for Humanity.
I have a black brother.
He's not my real biological brother, but he grew up with us.
So I'm very conscious of social issues and very conscious of race.
South Africa is a place with many social problems, due to colonialism,
apartheid
, a corrupt government that lasted about 10 years, although many countries also have corrupt governments... So I am very aware of how the media can be censored , books can be banned: I saw all that happen in South Africa.
Q.
You've also mentioned your recent diagnosis of attention deficit disorder (ADD) as important to your work.
A.
I like to talk about it.
I only found out I had it because another friend of mine kept talking about it and posting things on Facebook.
I told myself: “That sounds like me, that sounds like me…” So I asked him for advice and then I went to see his doctor.
Most women are underdiagnosed because it presents differently. In the case of girls and women, it is much more about anxiety and depression.
It's a kind of wheel that spins inside your own head.
.
My psychiatrist told me that many women are not diagnosed until a major change occurs in their life: a divorce, a child, losing a parent.
Move country, like I did.
It's also related to hormones, so if you have ADD it may be worse during your period.
And if you're in perimenopause and your estrogen goes down, your whole life falls apart.
People say, “I never thought you had ADD because you're strong and you write a lot of books and you do all that stuff.”
And I say, “Yes, but I was falling apart.”
I think [ADD] gives me that magpie curiosity and a lot of interest in a lot of different things.
I think that's why I combine different genres.
This is how my brain works and I consider it a superpower.
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