Xavier Bosch: "It wasn't until my father died that I began to live the way I truly wanted."

BarcelonaWhen, at the age of 21, Xavier Bosch (Barcelona, ​​​​1967) visited New York City for the first time, the impression was so strong that three decades later he needed to return to write it, but from the point of view of a young aspiring publicist, Edda Leveroni. The girl stars Diagonal Manhattan, I return to the Writer and Journalist's Column after a brief hiatus in Universe. If March 32 (2023) focused on "the dangers of political propaganda" and had previously delved into the lights and shadows of journalism, here "closes the tableau on communication" focusing on its "most luminous branch, advertising." And he does so based on the story of a young woman who makes her way to the United States – and who learns to love – while her father tries to resolve several crises he has at the advertising agency he founded in Barcelona.

It will be no coincidence that this novel takes place in 1989, the year in which she was 21 years old and traveled to New York for the first time, like Edda Leveroni.

— I still remember the colors, smells, and sounds of that city, which fascinated me as soon as I arrived. 1989 was an important year because walls like the Berlin Wall fell.

Walls were falling, but it was still difficult to come out of the closet.

— At that time, homosexuality was still on the World Health Organization's list of mental illnesses. It was still very much a hidden phenomenon.

In the novel, Edda and Bianca B. Miller, the head of BBM Advertising, live a love story.

— Everyone should be able to love whomever they want. That's my motto. Everyone can do it however they want and however they can.

In the United States, steps have been taken backwards in this regard since Trump became president again.

— It's absolutely absurd. In the name of what is all this happening? Religion? The money? Science? Or is it, above all, retrograde, misogynistic, and LGBT-phobic thinking?

At first glance, it may seem surprising that he would dedicate a novel to advertising, but as a former information science student, he took many courses.

— The first three years of my studies, there was no distinction between journalism and advertising. It was after you specialized. What interests me about the world of advertising is that it always brings good news. The 1980s were also the golden age of the profession in Barcelona.

Brauli Leveroni, a successful 57-year-old publicist, says the only thing left out of advertising is death.

— Advertising hides the sad side of life. That's why it's the brightest branch of communication. When it's good, it's like Churchill's motto that the company uses: "Turn words into bullets."

There are also dark elements of the business that appear in the novel.

— There's fierce competition between agencies to win clients, as well as the underworld of media crocodiles, who get angry if you place an ad with a competitor and can threaten you. Then there are the commissions some clients demand...

Diagonal Manhattan It begins with a creative who is very angry because a company that makes diapers has shot down his campaign.

— This anecdote allows me to raise an ethical debate: can advertising change people's habits? The campaign shows a man changing a baby's diaper. The slogan proposed by the creative is: "Anyone can do it." The company that makes the diapers is Italian and rejects the project. It's a campaign that's too advanced for its time. The client has money, but they're not always right.

In a speech after receiving an award, Brauli says that just as writers "want immortality at any price," publicists are more modest, because they only want to "sell." Do you agree with this quest for immortality?

— Borges said that when writers die, we become books: it's a beautiful form of survival. Whether for a year or for decades, our books will outlive us. They give us an extra life.

Brauli is described by his current partner, Sonia, as a man with Tarzan syndrome: "He only knows how to go from vine to vine."

— In 1989, a businessman was emotionally much worse off than he is now. Brauli changes women as he meets new ones, and sometimes he can be unfaithful, something that has happened to the Catalan bourgeoisie since industrialization. For Brauli, love triangles are a common way of life. His attitude contrasts with that of his daughter, Edda. The girl wonders at what point life belongs to us. First, we spend a few years in school and high school, obeying the rules. At the same time, we also want to please our parents. And that influence from them in some cases lasts a long time.

Have male advertisers overshadowed the importance of women who have dedicated themselves to this field?

— Diagonal Manhattan It's a demand from female advertisers in a very masculine, rather sexist world that objectifies women in advertising and subordinates them within companies. Even now, there's a glass ceiling that needs to be broken: 58% of people who end up in marketing and advertising are women, but only 14% end up reaching management positions.

New York helps Edda decide who she wants to be.

— New York is your bridge to freedom.

Your bridge to freedom was when you won the Sant Jordi award in 2009 with Everything will be known?

— It was a very important moment. Since then, I've been able to dedicate myself primarily to writing novels. The time I've had the most fun has been in this last stage, when I've written stories in which emotions are very important. To write... Diagonal Manhattan I left my phone in the next room. We're too focused on the WhatsApp, social media, and breaking news. Smartphones have made us globally addicted and are derailing us from leading calm, patient, and meaningful lives.

When published Everything will be known You were 42, the age of Bianca B. Miller. Despite being a powerful woman, she admits that she is still marked by her father's influence.

— In many of my novels, there's an absent mother and a doubly present father. I must free some ghosts... The absence of my mother in the novels must be due to the fact that mine died very young, when she was only 46.

And the father's influence?

— My father had a huge influence on me. He passed away in 2008, when he was 71. I still remember the moment we scattered his ashes in Guixers, the village in Solsonne where he came from. It wasn't until my father's death that I began to live the way I truly wanted.