Photography: Roberto Lapid, Twitter profile.
Robert Lapid He is Argentine from Córdoba and currently resides between his country and Spain. He has already written other novels, especially historical ones based on real cases, such as Dizna: Message from the Past or The Weis Enigma. And the last one is Imperfect passion, with a very special protagonist: the actress Hedy Lamarr. In this interview tells us about this work and much more and I thank you much time and kindness to grant it to me.
Roberto Lapid - Interview
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: The title of your latest book is Imperfect passion. What do you tell us about it and where did the idea come from?
ROBERT LAPID: The embryo of this story is born between some mountains to the west of the city of Cordoba in Argentina. There are several strange constructions there and one of them caught my attention: Mandl Castle. In the neighboring town diverse, contradictory and entangled were mentioned stories about who had been its owner, Fritz Mandl: Spy for the allies during the war? Nazi criminal?
The investigation revealed that Fritz had been a powerful and millionaire arms manufacturer. Exotic, quirky and enigmatic, and hated and revered by many. His clients had been none other than Hitler, Mussolini and Franco, among others, and among his friends were General Perón, Hemingway, Truman Capote and Orson Wells.
Fritz sees the film in the microcinema of his mansion in Vienna EcstasyWhere Hedy Kiesler performs first nude and first orgasm seen on screen at age 16. This young gifted, who studies theater and engineering and is fluent in several languages, marries Fritz. They both live in their castle in Salzburg and Hedy was the ideal host to receive all kinds of characters. Between the two a passion as unbridled as it is destructive. Then Hedy Kiesler flees and arrives in Hollywood to become Hedy Lamarr, the most beautiful woman in the cinema. But, in addition, it patents inventions, including a communications system that has given rise to what is today the wifi, GPS and bluetooth.
It is a historia real, with a plot where the characters were protagonists of several important events of the XNUMXth century.
- AL: Can you go back to that first book you read? And the first story you wrote?
LR: Between my first readings during childhood, I remember the saga of Sandokan, the Malaysian tigerby Emilio Salgari. My first story It was written at age 14, acuento for a contest from Editorial Kapeluz. Winning the jackpot raised my enthusiasm. So I started writing for the school newspaper. Later, when he was older, notes, chronicles and stories that were published in some newspapers. My first novel had to wait until 2010 to see the light.
- AL: A head writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.
LR: I have read many: AJ CroninHoward Fast, John Le Carré,ken leaflet, wilbur Smith, Carmen The forest, Paul Auster, July Verne, Cervantes, Homer, Walter Scott, Herman Hesse.
- AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
LR: I would have liked to meet Robert Langdon, star of Dan Brown's books, already several characters of the stories of Noah gordon.
- AL: Any special habits or habits when it comes to writing or reading?
LR: Before making a story I am passionate about investigating: access files, interview witnesses, walk through spaces. Inquire, unravel the hidden, transmit what little is known but which is important.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
LR: I generally dedicate the afternoons to literature, when I am not painting. I used to change spacesPerhaps due to the fact of traveling and having lived between Barcelona and Argentina for several years. To write I choose spaces with a lot of light, silence and solitude.
- AL: Are there other genres that you like?
LR: To read, the list is diverse: adventures, enigmas, passions. To write, historical novels based on real cases. At the moment only that.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
LR: I'm reading brooklyn follies, Paul auster yhI finished writing a novel whose future unfolds in the Valencian coast. An explosive case from 1969 involving little-known events in recent Spanish history where they arise betrayals, espionage e intrigues hidden. This book is already at the publisher, ready to be published.
I work now in a history that happens during the time of the Cold War in the Divided berlin by the well-known wall. Both novels are based on true cases that led to fascinating research.
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is and what decided you to try to publish?
LR: The publishing world is difficult and the pandemic has deteriorated the market. I have the luck to have a good literary agency and a publisher that supports my work. I look forward optimistically and do not stop writing.
I wrote the first manuscript and sent it to some Argentine publishers, one of them contacted and eventually published three of my books. Now from Roca Editorial de Barcelona my texts reach many Spanish-speaking countries.
- 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 stories?
LR: It has been difficult. I got trapped in Argentina under a very long and rigorous quarantine. Writing, painting, the family that was far away, and communication with friends helped to cope with loneliness and confinement. A light of hope and what I want is realized in regain freedom and health, in addition to leaving us important learnings.