Regina Rodríguez Sirvent: "When I finished the novel, I cried for a whole hour."

BarcelonaRegina Rodríguez Sirvent (Alp, 1983) started writing her second novel right after the birth of her second child, who was premature and He spent the first months of his life in the ICU at Vall d'Hebron.After that harrowing and profoundly unsettling experience, the writer could have continued to delve into the darkness, but instead, she chose the light: she unearthed from her memory one of the most beautiful and transformative moments of her life and turned it into Early morning popcorn (La Campana), which is published this Tuesday in Catalan and Spanish. He did it with the help of a pillow and the pressure of the enormous success of Panties in the sun (La Campana, 2022), which has sold over 100,000 copies in Catalan and 25,000 in Spanish, has been translated into English and is being adapted into a film. In his new novel, Rodríguez Sirvent revisits his alter egoRita Racons, when she's already over thirty. The protagonist ends up in a coworking Full of dreamers who will reveal to you a friendship and a love rarely found in life.

When you introduced Panties in the sun You said you wanted to talk "about vocation as a metaphor for life's demands." In this novel, Rita has found her vocation, but she doesn't know how to pursue it. Why were you interested in this impasse as a literary driving force?

— That's what happened to me. I found my calling, but it was like holding a hot potato. What do I do with this? It took me a decade to figure it out. A calling isn't just about your profession, it's also about life, and I was completely lost. I took a course at ESCAC, I went to the Ateneu Barcelonès… but I lacked a voice. And that's what this novel is about. I was searching for my voice in other people's stories because it seemed to me that what I heard was inferior. If I wanted to write a proper novel, one that was intellectual, dignified, and Catalan, I couldn't have humor. I had the feeling that what was growing inside me wasn't good enough.

Four years later you have made that dream come true, and in a big way. Panties in the sun It's been at the top of the bestseller list for many weeks. Have you managed to overcome that feeling?

— I was lucky that The panties They went very well, and in a way I wanted to honor that craft. Writing and all artistic pursuits are still considered lesser, always seen as a hobbyAnd even more so if what you do is linked to humor. But the first night I was alone in the ICU, I thought I was going crazy. I pictured myself walking on a tightrope and thought, "If you fall, you won't come back down." It was a very deep darkness. That night I opened my phone and looked at theAPM, he Poland and QuotesHumor saved me and saves me every day. And yet, we continue to undervalue it.

Early morning popcorn The story picks up Rita's story almost a decade after her trip to Atlanta. What has changed in her life?

— She's the same person, but the problems she faces are much bigger. They're dilemmas that will define her life. She finds Noah, with whom she has a cosmic connection that goes beyond the physical. Their love is incredible, perfect, but to continue together he needs to know if she wants to have children.

It is a novel about the protagonist's dream, but also about the dreams of a handful of strangers she meets by chance.

— We live in a culture full of people who will try to crush your dreams. I, on the other hand, believe. I did so many jobs that took me further away from my dream and didn't make me happy. I was selling wine in Japan and they fired me. It was incredibly hard, unfair, and very violent. And then I walked into that building, which I've called the Disaster in the novel, and I recognized myself in the dreams of all those people. For me, the Disaster was the town square, a place where very different perspectives on life meet. There's Emma, ​​who says she doesn't want to continue with her parents' haberdashery business; Tobi, from Silicon Valley, who's sold his company for $300 million and doesn't know what to do; and also the guy who manages social media for the Pope. All of this is true. It was just a block in the middle of the usual streets. You don't have to cross the Atlantic to have the adventure of a lifetime. I had it right here, on the corner of my street.

Why was that experience so transformative?

— I'm easily amazed by things in life, but what happened to us there was truly magical. It wasn't about anything specific; it was just the moment. We've all had that feeling of belonging, of connection with others. It could be during a weekend, walking the Camino de Santiago… When you feel it, it ignites a flame of future nostalgia because you know it's going to leave a mark on you.

Is it a feeling born of youth?

— I'd like to think not. This hunger for feeling is also a kind of curse, but I hope it lasts forever. In this sense, literature serves me very well, because I've been able to expand on everything I felt, and I continue to expand on it when I discuss it with readers. When I finished the novel, I cried for a whole hour. I called them all, and we shared the joy of what we had experienced. I've tried to do them justice.

In the novel you portray a Barcelona of rooftop parties and sunny afternoons, but there are also moments where you attack the globalization of the city, such as Tac's speech, which reproaches Charlotte for them expados do not integrate.

— I wanted to post it because I experience it too. I see expados They've been here for 10 years and they don't even know how to say "café con leche" (coffee with milk). It's infuriating. Then they take them to Catalan schools and they occupy a public square. The children will learn to sing. The pine giant It's free, but their parents can't talk to their teachers because they only know English. And they don't need to. One day I had a very heated conversation with one expandedThe teacher spoke to her in Catalan, and she told her to switch to Spanish, that it was for her daughter's education. Language is always secondary. I understood that, as a mother, but she needs to understand where she's gotten to, how we speak, and how we live. I told her that the teachers have the right to speak in Catalan, that they're public school teachers, and that I don't pay a single euro for the school.

In the novel you use a Catalan very close to spoken language and sprinkled with some Castilianisms that lead to some jokes within the plot, such as the word screwsHow have you prevented this informality in your language use from getting out of control?

— I did it with great respect and with a firm grasp of the proofreaders. But there are words I don't feel represent me, and then I lose authenticity. For example: they suggested putting "A hilarious novel" on the blurb. I know what that means. hilariousI know I could use grand words, but I don't want to. In the end, we went with "a mind-blowing novel," which is a word much more my own. In this story, language is part of the adventure and explains why so many people have overcome their reluctance to read a nearly 500-page book in Catalan. Without belittling the language, I believe that these openings to the everyday should also be words.