The children's mother

In a statement, the publishing house Anagrama, we read in our newspaper, "defends its right to publish the bookHate, in which José Bretón confesses to the murder of his two sons." This comes after the children's mother managed to stop the book from being published. "We reaffirm our commitment to editorial responsibility and freedom of expression, knowing that the two must coexist; and in this sense, we understand that literature can and should address these issues without ignoring the complexity they represent," they wrote.

We come from 'In cold blood, which was the first modern account of this "complexity." And we come, too, from The adversary, written, and it's no small detail, before social media. Many things have changed in literary journalism, with television and social media. Kapuscinsky said that "you had to be the first to arrive and the last to leave." This phrase is from before, because now, now precisely, there's always someone who will have arrived much, much earlier and will never leave. For example, in the home of a famous person who is dying or suffering a tragedy.

We—the consumers—are not the same, nor are they—the murderers. We are inundated today by what they call true crime, and which always ends up unintentionally depersonalizing and trivializing the victims, by the pendulum's law that stereotypes and unintentionally glorifies the executioners. Rosa Peral, as a character, makes the man she killed not entirely real, but a direct complement with no previous life or family, sad.

Of course, "literature" has every right to address any issue, even this one. But this mother has even more right not to want anyone to profit from the death of her children, not to want any crime reporter to mention their names, with that intimate tone they use to give them, precisely, personality and make them feel even more sorry for her. Of course she has the right.