"Why do we children end up doing what we hate most about our parents?"

BarcelonaLluís Llort has waited until the age of 60 to debut as an author of short stories. Born in Barcelona in 1966, the cultural journalist and novelist with a long and fruitful career has just published Shorts (crims.cat), thirty-seven narratives that "have discomfort as a common nexus". "Discomfort seems like a minor feeling, but it is more present in me than many of the feelings that abound in crime novels, such as revenge and hatred," asserts the author.

"He liked himself so much that he would fuck himself," begins one of the stories, Discord?. In another very brief one, Biga Mortensen, a man hangs himself because he is convinced that life is no longer worth living, but the old wooden beam he uses is also going through a bad time and breaks. "Micro-stories like this may seem like a joke, although they have deeper readings," admits the author, who began the book "tidying up" his computer shortly after having won the L'H Confidencial prize with Demolition (crims.cat, 2024). "I had published stories in ten collective books, and of those, I have only included half in this book," he admits. "The rest are unpublished. I had a great time writing them, especially the shorter ones. I like to go towards the essence of the stories I want to tell."

While he doesn't have an idea that seduces him enough for a new novel, Llort is starting to prepare for retirement. "I have fifteen months of work left, but don't worry, I am not one of those who, upon retiring, start writing frantically," he advances. "I will dedicate myself to watching construction sites: in Barcelona, they are constantly being built." Linked to Avui since 1986 –and, for the last fifteen years, to El Punt Avui–, Llort discovered his literary vocation when he had already turned thirty. "I would have liked to dedicate myself to music and had even played in several bands, but because of a hearing problem, it wasn't possible," he recalls. "Then I started writing. And the first novel I published had as its protagonist the leader of a rock band who was suffering from depression."

A novel about toxic inheritances

Music is one of the obvious links between Shorts and Fúria, the third book by Lluís Riera (Artés, 1975), published by crims.cat, one of the most veteran crime fiction collections in Catalan, with more than a hundred titles and fifteen years of history. "Although I grew up in Bages, I have lived in Castelló d'Empúries for years, where I work in social education," he explains. "After debuting with Dirty Tales [Neopàtria, 2023], I published my first novel, The Slaughterhouse [crims.cat, 2024]". Like its predecessor, Fúria is set in "the deep Catalonia, which is like the white trash of the United States, a very patriarchal, sexist, and homophobic territory, a place full of absolute emotional illiterates".

Riera proposes a journey to the nineties of the 20th century to narrate "a love story between two teenagers: the daughter of a junkie prostitute and a boy who leads a rock band". The possibility of the couple turning into a triangle triggers a series of latent legacies that these two characters and their circle of friends carry. "Why do we children end up doing what we hate most about our parents?" wonders Riera. "There are children who are born with very brutal wounds, and the pain they carry inside ends up surfacing at some point. Fúria is an ode to children who were born with a pellet in their wing. Throughout my professional career as a social educator, I have been able to verify how these children start life at a great disadvantage". Without revealing whether he saves or condemns his characters, Lluís Riera assures that readers who begin Fúria will find a mixture of "brutality and sensuality": "At times their stomachs will turn. At other moments they might feel an exaggerated empathy towards the protagonists".