Glòria de Castro: "It's a shame that stories are stripped of their gore."

BarcelonaThree and a half years after Gloria de Castro (Caldes de Montbui, 1974) will debut with The moment before impact In Periscope, with which she won the Llibreter prize, the publicist who left her job to dedicate herself to writing returns with a second novel, The solemn templesThe book tells the story of Nina, a middle-aged woman who returns with her husband and son to the house where she grew up, located in a lonely place. The house reawakens the ghosts of the protagonist's youth and forces her to confront the multiple crises of her uncertain present.

Your first novel angrily confronted the professional world you ended up leaving, and this one suggests escaping. Did you write them one after the other?

— No, no, pretty much in parallel. I started the first one when I returned from maternity leave. When I already had the first draft, to alleviate the anxiety of not knowing what would happen to the book, I started working on this one. It coincided with the time we left Madrid to settle in Mallorca, in a house in the middle of the countryside, in Llubí.

Was it a well-thought-out decision?

— Nothing. It was one summer when we were in the center of Mallorca...

Did you have any connection with the island?

— No, no, none. One night we wondered what it would be like to leave everything behind and come live here. It didn't take us long to decide we'd give it a try.

Was it a major life change?

— It was a huge change. My partner opened a restaurant, and I started working at a foundation dedicated to education. Now I no longer work at the foundation; I also work at the restaurant. But it was worth it. Radical changes shouldn't scare us: we can always go back.

Do you mean?

— I think so. My partner, for example, has been offered the chance to open a restaurant like the one we have in Madrid. And we've also been offered other jobs in the city.

Would you come back?

— I don't see myself going back to a city right now. In recent years, cities have gone from being places that welcomed and made life easier for people to expelling them.

Nina, Ivan and Ariel have just fled, at the beginning ofThe solemn templesThe apartment they'd been living in until then has developed some very ugly cracks that threaten to demolish it. Was this the starting point for the novel?

— The starting point was the reservoir near where the three of them will be living. It's inspired by the place we used to go on vacation when we were little, Camarasa. There, my godmother explained to us that whenever we were near the reservoir we had to be very careful: she told us it had sucked people in. I spent many of the magical moments of my childhood in Camarasa. It's a place I always remember. Perhaps it was inevitable that it would end up inspiring a...

At times, the novel takes on the feel of a classic tale. Do you agree?

— One of my biggest influences has been the Brothers Grimm's fairy tales. I was very impressed that, unlike the Disney film, in the Brothers Grimm's Cinderella the sisters mutilate their feet. I've always loved blood. I loved reading and hearing scary stories.

In the novel, the three characters return to a dilapidated house that belonged to Nina's family. She had lived there with her father and twin brother when she was little.

— When the novel begins, the couple is falling apart: the fact that the same thing happened to them in the apartment they lived in is a foreshadowing. They decide to return to that other house, even though she initially repels it. Although her partner is dedicated to rebuilding it, she doesn't want to go inside. The house has dark corners, just like Nina's life.

One of the major conflicts is with his father, who can be violent.

— The family should protect us, give us a place to heal, provide us with care, save us... but, in the end, the family is where the worst violence occurs.

It's striking that this father loves listening to Julio Iglesias so much.

— Julio Iglesias It's a kind and loving mask that hides a figure with many more edges. The father represents the shadows of authoritarianism, but also shows us the fragility of the body, family, and happiness. I wanted to build The solemn temples Like a choreography. The dancers involved must always be in sync, but the line between perfection and chaos is so fine that if only one of the dancers moves forward or backward, the beauty is lost.

When she is young, Nina decides to run away from home to her father because she dreams of dedicating herself to dance.

— I wanted to write another novel about the body, about re-evaluating it, because Western society has somewhat forgotten about it. Everything in our lives is so intellectualized.

Its protagonist struggles to realize his ambition, but fails.

— To succeed, you often need connections and help from elites. This is especially evident in the art world. Previously, painters came from lower classes because they needed to express all their anxiety through art. Today, the art world is run by elites and has become more capitalist and consumerist.

Does the same thing happen in literature?

— The most highly endowed awards are largely focused on the author's media talent or the number of followers they have on social media. Sometimes they are won by people with their own merits, obviously, but on other occasions they have also had sponsors.

It was difficult for him to publish The moment before the fallConsidering that he came from a world that had nothing to do with literature?

— I sent it to every publisher, but no one wanted it. Later, I even translated it into Spanish and submitted it to the Clarín Prize. I was among the four finalists, but Penguin Random House didn't offer me the chance to publish it until Periscopio had already bought the rights. And if Periscopio wanted it, it was because Manuel Baixauli, who was a judge on a competition I also didn't win, sent it to them because he liked it so much.

Before making his debut, he went through all sorts of hues, but his efforts were rewarded, as we read in some of the Brothers Grimm's tales.

— In the Brothers Grimm's fairy tales, the characters must go through very difficult trials and often lose something to reach a new place. Those stories are very brutal, but they are fascinating. It's a shame that now, when they are explained to children again, the "innocence" aspect is left out. goreIt's also a shame that I only want to talk to you about emotions.