Interview with Inés Plana, exponent of the new Spanish crime novel.

We are pleased to have today on our blog Inés Plana (Barbastro, 1959), revelation writer 2018, resounding success in sales with her first novel, Dying is not what hurts the most, and just published the second Before those who do not love die, both from the hand of the Espasa publishing house.

«It was an ax blow that seemed to have fallen from the sky treacherously, to dig deep into the earth and cause a chasm between people and their hopes. On one side were the people and the mortgages that they could no longer pay, the jobs that ceased to exist, the bankrupt companies, the sadness, the perplexity. On the other side of the insurmountable chasm: the beautiful houses, the new cars, the vacations in the tropics, the security of the payroll, the weekend trips and many other dreams come true. No bridge was to be built to return to those lost worlds. On the contrary, the intention was to dynamite all those who still remained unscathed.

Actualidad Literatura: Career journalist and cult writer in the crime genre with your first novel. How was the process? What led you one day to say "I'm going to write a novel, and it's going to be a crime novel"?

Ines Plana: I had been rehearsing writing for years and at home I still keep pages of stories, stories and early novels that I ended up discarding because they didn't have the quality I was looking for, but I learned a lot in the process. There came a time when I did feel ready to tackle the enormous complexity of a novel. I had the plot in my head, which would later become “Dying is not what hurts the most, and with fear and respect I began to write the first chapter and I did not stop. Why a crime novel? I have always been attracted to the genre, both in cinema and in literature, and I had already decided that the story would start with the image of a hanged man, with an apparently perfect crime that should lead me to an exploration of evil and what cruel and hazardous that can become fate.

AL: The social scourge of human trafficking, of minors in this case, to be enslaved and raped for economic purposes is masterfully reflected in your second novel, Before those who do not love die. A terrible subject, which we all know exists, but which does not usually make the front pages in the newspapers. What about human trafficking, mafias, pimps who use women and girls as merchandise? Where in reality is this slavery of the XNUMXst century that, sometimes, seems to only exist in crime novels?

IP: It is estimated that the prostitution business generates around five million euros a day in Spain. The penal code does not consider it a crime to rent a human body to practice sex, it is pimping, but the women who are enslaved are threatened and do not dare to denounce that they are victims of sexual exploitation. They are forced to claim that they are engaging in sex of their own free will. Thus, it is difficult to demonstrate before the law the trafficking of women, that slavery in the XXI century. In the European Union, one in four victims is a minor. You pay much more for them than for an adult woman. This is the tremendous reality that, once again, surpasses everything that can be told in a novel.

AL: You tell about your first novel, Dying is not what hurts the most, what It arises from a shocking life experience: you saw a hanged man, hanging from a tree, while you were on a train. On Before those who do not love die In addition to the trafficking of minors, many backstories are crossed that reflect the loneliness of old age, the unconsciousness of a young woman who is capable of destroying a family and all those who love her, a bad mother to whom her daughters hinder, the rejection suffered by the civil guards in their places of origin or in their own families in certain areas of Spain, the betrayal between friends ... What strikes you about these secondary plots to choose them as the fourth wall of  Before those who do not love die?

IP: I am shocked by everything that generates pain, injustice, and unfortunately reality gives me many elements to inspire me in the darkest areas and attitudes of the human condition. I am a writer, but also a journalist. I live very close to reality, I observe it with a critical spirit, it hurts and I despair when nothing is done to improve it or to dignify it. Both in my first novel and in the second I have wanted to portray that dirty reality from the fable, which is the tool that I have. The crime novel allows the use of fiction for social denunciation and, at the same time that readers enjoy a story, they can also discover dark aspects of society that they had not noticed and that provoke them to reflect on the times we live in.

AL: You set your novels in small towns in Castile and this time also in a Galician setting, on the Costa Da Morte. Uvés, Los Herreros, Cieña,… are towns through which the reader walks by your hand, feeling at the end just another neighbor. Are there such locations?

IP: Both Uvés in the Community of Madrid and Los Herreros in Palencia or Cieña on the Costa da Morte are imaginary settings. In them there are situations that, for one reason or another, I have not wanted to single out by choosing real places. I also feel freer to fable doing it like this. But all those fictitious localities have a real base, towns that have inspired me and that have served as a reference, although it is not one in particular, but I have mixed elements of several until they become a single scenario.

AL: The protagonists par excellence of the American black genre are the private detectives and of the Spanish, the policemen. Although the Civil Guard stars in some of the renowned black series, it is not usually the one chosen by the writers of the genre. In your black series you introduce us to two very human, very real civil guards: Lieutenant Julián Tresser and Corporal Coira, neither of whom are going through their prime. Why civil guards? The Civil Guard is a body with military regulations, different from the police, and the solvency with which you write about them reveals many hours of investigation, has it been difficult to know the internal functioning of the body and the impact on personal life of such an election professional?

IP: Yes, it has been, because the Civil Guard has a fairly complex internal operation, precisely because of its military nature, unlike other police forces. But I have the help of Germán, a sergeant of the Civil Guard, an extraordinary professional and an extraordinary person who has explained the particularities of the Corps to me with great patience on his part, since it is not easy to understand them the first time. For me it is a challenge and from the first moment that I began to imagine the plot of "Dying is not what hurts the most" I was very clear that the investigators would be civil guards. From one novel to another I have been able to learn much more about their lives, their daily problems and their way of working, which is admirable, because they have a spirit of extraordinary dedication and it is not easy to emotionally cope with a job that, on many occasions, is really Lasted. In fact, they have a high suicide rate and the worst thing is that not enough resources are allocated for effective and, above all, preventive psychological care.

AL: You come to the world of the novel after an important professional career as a journalist. Your first novel Dying is not what hurts the most It has been the revelation novel of the noir genre and Before those who do not love die already smells and tastes like best-seller. Are there unforgettable moments in this process? The kind that you will treasure forever.

IP: There are many, made of sensations and emotions that I have very internalized. I remember the meetings with the readers in the reading clubs as one of the most precious moments of my life, as well as the presentation in Madrid of "Dying is not what hurts the most" and the ones I did in my land, Aragon. In my town, Barbastro, I had a welcome that I will never forget, as in Zaragoza and Huesca. It was my first novel and I lived it all with great intensity, it was hard for me to believe that everything so beautiful was happening to me. Nor do I forget how much I have enjoyed the crime festivals, fairs and presentations in many cities in Spain and I also stay with the people I have met through my novel and with whom I have connected in such a special way. .

AL: How do you invoke creativity? Do you have habits or hobbies when writing? Do you share the story before letting it see the light or do you keep it to yourself until you consider the job finished?

IP: Inspiration is very fickle and comes when it wants, not when you need it, so I don't usually wait for it. I prefer to start writing and let it be my own work, the insistence on getting it done, the one that opens my mind and shows me ways. Still, if I had to mention an inspiring source, it would certainly be music for me. I do not listen to it while I write, I am incapable because I am off-center, but between writing sessions I listen to songs that most of the time have nothing to do with the matter I am dealing with but that generate images in my mind, suggest situations attitudes of the characters that help me a lot and that I consider valuable. I have no manias when I start to write. I just need silence and that nobody or nothing interrupts me, which is not always achieved, but I try to make it that way because it is a job that requires a lot of concentration and a special state of mind that places me absolutely out of the world. There is only the story I want to tell and nothing more. It is a complicated process that produces insecurity, that forces you to make decisions that, if they are not the correct ones, can crack the foundations of the novel. We must be careful. When I have several chapters, I give them to my partner, who also writes, to read their impressions and comment on them.

AL: We would love for you to open up your reader's soul to us: what are those books that the years go by and, from time to time, you read again? Any author that you are passionate about, the kind that you just buy that are published?

IP: I usually reread a lot. I have authors that I go to on a recurring basis because I always learn new things from them. This is the case of Tolstoy, Jane Austen or Flaubert, for example. There is a contemporary author that I like a lot, Enrique Vila-Matas. I am drawn to the worlds he expresses and how well he narrates them, but I am not anxiously following any specific writer. I buy books that I have good references to and the truth is that I like to improvise when I visit a bookstore.

AL: What about the literary piracy that the day after a novel is released, it can be downloaded from any pirate page? How much damage does it do to writers?

IP: It does a lot of damage, of course. It hurts that, indeed, almost the minute a novel is published it is already being offered for free on the Internet. These times that we live of absolute interconnection have those edges that remain unpolished. I do not have the solution to stop piracy, because I am a simple citizen, but it is up to our leaders to do so and I do not know if they are making the effort required by this issue that damages creation and culture so much.

AL: Paper or digital?

IP: I like to read on paper, although sometimes I do it on the tablet, but I love that ritual of turning the pages, the very special smell of the newly bought book ... In any case, the important thing is to read, whatever the medium. It is one of the healthiest habits for the mind and the most enriching that exists.

AL: In recent years, the image of a writer has changed a lot. The classic image of the taciturn, introverted and hermit genius has given way to more media writers, who make themselves known to the world through social networks and have thousands and even hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. Some stay, others, like Lorenzo Silva, leave. How is your case? What is the relationship with social networks?

IP: Since I published my first novel, my experience in the networks has been, simply, wonderful. They have allowed me to connect with my readers, in public or through private messages. During the writing of my second novel I have felt the affection and respect of so many people who read "Dying is not what hurts the most" and who were waiting for my next story, which I would be eternally grateful for. I am a very social person, I like people, and in the networks I feel in my midst and I hope that it always continues like this.

AL: To close, as always, I am going to ask you the most intimate question that a writer can ask: Why do you write?

IP: It is a necessity, I do not remember a single day of my life in which I have not written something or have not imagined what I was going to write. Being very small and even without having learned to write, my parents told me that I was already improvising poems and reciting them aloud. I believe that I was born with that concern attached to me and I suppose that I became a journalist so that it would never abandon me. Writing is my life partner and I couldn't imagine my existence without it.

Thanks Inés Plana, I wish you to continue with this overwhelming success and that Julián Tresser and Corporal Guillermo Coira have a long life to the delight of your readers.