To leave everything at the most crucial moment of the career

BarcelonaOn a trip to Iceland in 2022, journalist and writer Pere Francesch Rom (Montbrió del Camp, 1981) found the ideal village to tell a story that had been brewing within him for years. Djúpivogur presented itself as the perfect place to send the novel's protagonist, a renowned musician who disappears overnight and serves as the novel's central figure. Don't forget your name (Column). "This town is the perfect refuge for a musician who decides to leave everything behind at the peak of his career, when he could fill 20 Olympic stadiums, and hide from the world," explains the writer. The starting point for this story comes from the announcement David Bowie made in 1973, when he said at a concert that it would be the last one in which he would appear as Ziggy Stardust. "It impacted me greatly, to the point that the book begins like this: the protagonist says goodbye to the audience at the last concert of his career," says Francesch.

For years, his career as a music journalist for the Catalan News Agency (ACN) has led him to interview artists from several generations. From this experience, he has created the character of Stan, who reinvents himself as a boat captain in Iceland and becomes a grumpy and misanthropic man. "Guilt haunts him. He's a man who lives with rage and is angry at everyone. But no matter how far you flee to the other side of the world, you'll still drag the burdens you carry," the author emphasizes. The novel recounts the protagonist's redemption and his return to the community through his encounter with Elmar, a teenager who wants to succeed with his songs and who addresses the musician 40 years after his escape.

The bond between these two characters functions in the novel as a hymn to intergenerational understanding. "For a while, I was convinced that the music I listened to, from the 70s, was the best. Close contact with teenagers at home has taught me that there are current bands that are very good and that it's absurd to look at them with condescension and moral superiority," Francesch points out, citing artists like Rosalía among his influences. "Stan's story also allows me to talk about success and how it can disrupt an artist's life. It involves carrying a burden that, if you haven't worked hard to bear it, can have terrible consequences," the author adds.

Music as a unifying force

Don't forget your name This is the third novel by Pere Francesch Rom, who debuted with Gainsbourg and Dalí, moi non plus (Caligrafo, 2019) and has also published The silence of others (Column, 2022). "This is my least personal novel, but I always carry over themes from my life into all of them. Here, music appears as a refuge for isolation, but also as a link between people," says the writer. In this sense, the text is full of musical references—names like Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Nicki Minaj, and Joy Division resonate—but it's not aimed solely at music lovers. "Ultimately, it's a book about the redemption of two characters who need each other," concludes Francesch. "They both realize that by sharing their anxieties and guilt, they can heal."