Santiago Diaz. Interview with the author of The Good Father

Santiago Diaz has a new novel since last day 14, The good father, which I highlighted in the black novelties at the beginning of the month. In this interview, who it is not the first that grants us, the writer and screenwriter tells us about it and much more. I appreciate your time, attention and kindness.

SANTIAGO DÍAZ - INTERVIEW

• ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: So, cold, do you remember the first book you read? And the first story you wrote?

SANTIAGO DIAZ: I am a late writer, as como también I was a late reader. As a child and in my teens I was only attracted to comics, until I discovered books. I've thought about it many times and I can't remember which was the first, but one of the ones that impressed me the most was animal graveyard, Stephen King. I must have been about thirteen years old and I still remember the fear I went through.

As for the first thing I wrote with the intention of teaching it, it was the movie script at twenty-two or twenty-three. I remember it was very bad, but it served to put my head in the industry, and until today.

• AL: And what was that book that struck you and why?

SD: Apart from the one I have told you about, surely the first of my brother Jorge, Elephant numbers. I had been a screenwriter for almost twenty years and had never considered writing a novel, but it seemed so good that I decided that I too wanted to do something like that some day.

Besides, as I suppose it has happened to all of my generation, it also impacted me a lot The catcher in the ryeby JD Salinger.

• AL: Now you introduce us The good father and again you propose an eye for an eye touch as in the previous one, Talion. Is it so or is there much more?

SD: As in Talion, riding a The good father I talk about the need for justice that society has. In the first case, it was done through the “eye for an eye” applied by a journalist who had little time to live. In this second novel it is a father that, believing that his hijo is encarcelado unfairly for the murder of his wife, he decides to kidnap to the three people he holds responsible and threatens to let them die if they do not find the real murderer of his daughter-in-law: a judge, a lawyer and a student who acted as a witness at the trial.

Apart from reopening that murder, we will know the life of the kidnapped, de los policemen, life in the cárcel and some secrets city Madrid. I am very proud of Talionof course, but i think with The good father I have taken a step forward as a writer.

• AL: Inspector Indira Ramos is in charge of taking care of the case of that "good father" and she has a special phobia of microbes. Can you tell us a little more who he is and what he will have to face in that investigation?

SD: Indira Ramos is a very special woman. Suffers from a obsessive compulsive disorder that prevents you from leading a normal life. I don't intend to do comedy with that, but it made me laugh to confront my heroine with an enemy as invisible as the microbes.

But besides being a peculiar woman, she is an upright and honest police, so much so that he will not hesitate to denounce those who violate the rules, even if he is supposedly on the same side. That will make it difficult for him to fit in, but little by little he will begin to find his place in the world. She has been an inspector for almost ten years now and this will be your most important and media case to date. You will need to start trusting others if you intend to solve it.

• AL: You told us in the previous interview that Paul Auster had been your favorite writer but that you were angry with him. Can we now know the reasons and if the American author has recovered your favors?

SD: Ha ha, more than anger they were a couple of disappointments in a row. I guess I'll give it another chance at some point because I don't stop loving so quickly, but I recognize that my to-do list is starting to get the better of me.

• AL: And now there are a few questions on drums. For example, what character in a book would you have liked to meet and create and why?

SD: There are many, in every book that I read and I like, there is a character that I would have loved to create myself. But so, by boat soon, I would say that Ignatius J. Reilly, the protagonist of The conspiracy of fools. It seems to me the quintessential antiheroSomeone who manages to make you laugh and make you feel sorry for yourself.

• AL: That mania when it comes to writing or reading that you can't avoid, what is it?

SD: I can't leave a single word on a line. I am able to rewrite the entire paragraph to avoid it. And the worst thing is that I know it's stupid, because later, when they edit the text, they change everything.

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

SD: Although I have to adapt to hotels or trains, I like to write in my office And every time I find a free moment, but I am most productive in the late afternoon. Leather, wherever, but my best moments are on the beach with a tinto de verano in the hand. That, to me, is priceless.

• AL: More literary genres that you like or would you like to play as a writer?

SD: I really like the crime novel, closely followed by the historical novel. For a long time I am maturing an idea set in another era and any day I can surprise ...

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

SD: I just finished The door, Manuel Loureiro. I really liked it and I recommend it. I am also reading everything that falls into my hand on a specific topic, but I can not tell you because that's what my next novel is going to be about. If all goes well, it will be himsecond installment of Indira Ramos.

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

SD: I would love to say otherwise, but it is very complicated. Apart from the fact that, as you well say, there is too much offer for so few readers, there is the hacking, which has the publishers crushed, but especially the authors. I think we have to start raising awareness to end that as soon as possible. I already have the moral food for my closest circle to reject any type of hacking. That is something we should all do.

On the positive side, say that readers are hungry for good storiesSo if someone finds one, I'm sure they'll see the light of day.

• AL: And, finally, what is the moment of crisis that we are living in assuming you? Can you keep something positive or useful for future novels?

SD: I'm feeling it a lot for the people around me, whom I have seen have a terrible time, becoming unemployed and having to close businesses. I am fortunate, because before the pandemic I already worked at home, so, in that sense, my life has not changed much.

On the positive side, to say that, having been confined, I have had much more time to write. But I don't think it makes up for; the stories are in the street and there you have to find them. I hope we can get over this nightmare once and for all. I think we are beginning to see the light.