"I know better what it costs to get on a tractor than to go up or down the subway stairs," he admits. Antoni PladevallBorn in Taradell in 1961, the author has continually explored "the psychology of characters who live surrounded by land, trees and irrigation ditches" in novels such as Rental properties (Column, 2006) and The black butterfly (Column, 2009). "From a young age, I was aware that I was just another figure in the landscape, and that the landscape, besides looking at me, was also looking at me," he recalls. A Doctor of Classical Philology, Pladevall was a high school teacher until four years ago. "I started in Berga, then moved to Torelló and Sabadell, and ended up in Vic," he says. "At one point, I could have taught in Taradell, but I resisted because I didn't want to run into a student's mother while I was queuing to buy bread, reproaching me for having failed her daughter."