José Calvo Poyato. Interview with the author of La travesía final

Jose Calvo Poyato has a long career as a writer of popular historical works and as a novelist, among whose titles are The king's spell, Conjuration in Madrid, The Black Bible, The Dragon Lady o Hypatia's Dream, among others. Thank you very much for the time you spent on this interview where he tells us about his latest novel, The final journey, and on more topics.

José Calvo Poyato - Interview

• ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: You just released a new novel on the market, The final journey. What do you tell us in it? 

The final journey is, in a way, a continuation of the infinite path, in which it was counted the first round the world by Juan Sebastián Elcano. Now, the Spanish sailor, born in Getaria, becomes the center of the novel in which it is told what happened to himAfter going around the world for the first time, because Elcano disappears from the history manuals and the character seems important enough for us to know what happened to him. Add to this that those years following the first round the world were full of great events in our history. 

• AL: Can you go back to the memory of that first book you read? And the first story you wrote?

The first book I read was a history of the crusades. It was one of those books from Editorial Bruguera in which the text was combined with the comic. The comic was read first. Sometimes just the comic. We were children of seven or eight years old. I think they gave it to me when I made my first communion, I was not yet seven years old.

The first story I wrote and that became a book was a historical study on the crisis of the seventeenth century in my town: The crisis of the seventeenth century in the Villa de Cabra. It won an award and that's why it was published. It's been a few years since.

• AL: What was the first book that struck you and why?

I remember they impressed me, as a teenager, the books of Martín Vigilas Life meets. Also those of Maxence Van der Meersch, as Bodies and souls! As a historian, I remember that one summer I read all the National Episodes of Galdós. I was impressed. I think that reading decisively influenced which I ended up being a historian and I was passionate about the historical novel. At the time it never crossed my mind that one day I would be the one to write them. 

• AL: Who is your favorite writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.

I have already referred to what Don Benito Pérez Galdós supposed. I am passionate about Quevedo and of the great novelists of the nineteenth century as Honoré Balzac or Victor Hugo. Among current writers, my favorites are Jose Luis Corral, true master of the historical novel. The trials of Juan Eslava Galan and the works of Don Antonio Domínguez Ortiz on the Spain of the Habsburgs and the XNUMXth century.

• AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?

Madame Bouvary. It seems to me that he is one of the best drawn characters in literature of all time. Not left behind Lazarus, the protagonist of The Lazarillo de Tormes: Sancho Panza. Both seem great to me for their references and life events. 

• AL: Any special habits when writing or reading?

I usually isolate myself fairly good, allowing me to write in places where there are other people chatting. That is why I often write in the kitchen from my house, family gathering center. When I make the final correction of a text to deliver it to the press, I usually isolate myself and read without interruptions. Sometimes i write —Writing is the final phase of the writing process— for many weeks and there may be imbalances, changes in rhythm, which must be corrected. So I prefer to be alone and isolated.  

• AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?

As I have already pointed out, I can do it anywhere and now I don't have favorite moments. There were times when he preferred to write at night. But over time I have concluded that should be written when one is comfortable, loose. Sometimes one insists on writing —In the sense of writing — and ideas don't flow. In those moments it is better to leave it. There are times when, on the contrary, everything comes easily and you have to take advantage of it.

• AL: Other genres that you like?

Besides historical novels, I read a lot historical essay; after all, I'm a historian. I also read Noveltyboth classic Dashiell type Hammett or Vázquez Montalbán as a current crime novel. Many readers maintain that in my novels there is always a black plot that, without being properly historical, is plausible and therefore fits well into the historical framework of the novel. 

• AL: What are you reading now? And writing?

I've finished Infinity in a reedby Irene Vallejo. I'm reading Weapons of the Light, Sanchez Adalid, and The forgotten queenby José Luis Corral. You are waiting for a biography of Carlos III. I am looking for information on little known aspects of the Spanish XNUMXth century in its second half. 

• AL: How do you think the publishing scene is for as many authors as there are or want to publish?

Maybe it is more complicated in recent years. The crisis that began in 2008 greatly affected the world of books. Very good writers were left without a publisher. It was very hard. There are currently many writers who have the illusion of publishing, but the possibilities are limited. There is the possibility of desktop publishing, but in that case the distribution fails, which is essential. It is a pity that many stories, very good and well told, do not see the light or see it in a very limited way.

• AL: Is the moment of crisis that we are experiencing being difficult for you or will you be able to keep something positive for future novels?

The epidemic crisis we are experiencing is being very hard. Not just for the deceased and the sick who are having a hard time recovering. Also because of what confinement, restrictions, immobility or very relative mobility entail. It is something that our society did not expect. These epidemics affected other parts of the planet, but they were not a problem in Europe.

For me personally, it has been bearable. I live in a town house   —All a luxury in these circumstances — y the profession of writer is very lonely, although I write sometimes, in the middle of a family gathering. I think we can draw conclusions from what is happening as that we are more vulnerable than we thought, that lhumility is highly recommended or that patience, in a society dominated by speed and immediacy, it is convenient that we learn to cultivate it.