Domingo Villar. "I have always been fascinated by the sea"

The fact that Domingo Villar is a weakness who types these lines is an open secret, and none if you are a regular customer of this blog where there are a few articles about him and his books. I am also lucky to meet him, to have greeted him On several occasions and have verified that your simplicity as a person he goes hand in hand with his enormous talent as a writer.

Today I give myself a birthday present with this interview that Domingo was kind enough to grant me last month. Thanking you for your time and dedication is little. What many readers really appreciate is having us so surrendered to Leo Caldas and Rafa Estévez, and enjoy a prose voice as unique as yours. Gracians for everything, Sunday.

Sunday Villar

Born in Vigo, but living in Madrid, Domingo Villar has one of those unique prestige in contemporary Spanish crime novel with only 3 titles published: Water eyes, The beach of the drowned y The last ship. But you understand it when you discover two unrepeatable characters: the inspector from Vigo Leo Caldas and his Aragonese assistant Rafael This time. And you go to settings like those that surround and fertilize the Vigo estuary.

In addition, an extraordinary prose that you read as if you were sailing on one of the ferries that cross that estuary from shore to shore between any of its towns, coves, beaches and hidden corners full of beauty. There's also crimes, of course, and their research, but above all there are stocks of its characters and the idiosyncrasy more Galician and also more evocative.

Una amalgam of touches that make up the storytelling style that Domingo Villar has and that he has been granted a career as successful as faithful by the many readers who follow him with devotion. That we have been able to endure ten years for his last novel and that we will wait for what it takes for the next.

INTERVIEW WITH DOMINGO VILLAR

• ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: Do you remember the first book you read? And the first story you wrote?

DOMINGO VILLAR: I'm not sure about the first book I read, but the first story i wrote or at least the first one I remember was a bullshit titled The desert quince.

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

DV: The island of the treasureby Stevenson. I have always felt fascination for the sea. As a child, I saw the estuary from my window and I suppose that Jim Hawkins felt like someone very close.

• AL: Your favorite writers? You can choose from all times.

DV: Robert Louis Stevenson, Dennis Lehane,John Irving, Cormac McCarthy, Camilleri, Munoz Molina, Marse, Torrent, barojaGarcia Marquez, Carlos Oroza, Leopoldo Maria Panero, Joaquin Sabina...

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

DV: To the pirate Long John Silver, the most charming scoundrel in literature.

• AL: Any habit or mania when it comes to writing or reading?

DV: Leo reclining, in silence, on a sofa or in bed. I write with music soft, chocolate y coffee.

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

DV: I prefer to write from night, when the house is silent. I usually put myself in the dining room table, where can I extend my notes and notepads.

• AL: What literary genres do you like the most?

DV: The poetry and Novelty.

• AL: What writer or book has influenced your work as an author?

DV: Andrea Camilleri, Vazquez Montalbán, Torrente Ballester, Lorenzo Silva...

• AL: What are you reading now? For pleasure or as documentation?

DV: I am reading to document myself and try to seat my next book well.

• AL: And writing? Perhaps the fourth novel by Inspector Caldas?

DV: I'm in it, yes, taking notes, trying to sketch the story ... I wanted to have spent several weeks this spring in Galicia to step on and smell the places where I am going to place the book, but Covid-19 has had other plans. 

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

DV: I think it was never so easy to publish. Amazon offers the possibility of self-publishing and many publishers "fish" in that fishing ground.  The problem is another: we are running out of readers. Reading is a wonderful activity, but it requires an imaginative effort that fewer and fewer people are willing to take on. We are ceasing to be actors to become mere spectators.

• 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?

DV: I see almost nothing positive in all this mess. At first it seemed so unreal that for weeks I was unable to write or read. And I know that it has not happened to me alone. Why fable if the novel was around us?