burn this book
burn this book is an autobiographical novel written by the late author and film director Fernando Marías. The work was published by the Alrevés publishing house in 2021. It could be said that this book is, in reality, the last one that Marías wrote, his farewell to a world that saw him establish himself as a laureate writer, while enjoying the excesses concealed by a life of alcoholism and loss.
En burn this book Fernando Marías describes himself in the mature light of achieved sobriety, but perhaps also of guilt. The work is, to put it in some way, a chronicle of atonement told from the self-knowledge that Marías had about himself and his most atrocious actions, but also from his days of light, his loves and the happiness that he once shared. with Veronica.
Synopsis of burn this book
the beginning of the end
Fernando Marías was close to dying some time ago, and he himself refers to the fact in burn this book. Although his “near death” is a turning point of no return in the author's life, a lot happened before he could get there. In his work Fernando tells a true story: his and Verónica's, the woman who accompanied him through dizzying decades in a wonderful and turbulent time, where great artists were the center of attention.
La autobiography Its plot focuses on revealing how Fernando Marías and Verónica descended into the heaven-painted hell that is alcohol addiction —first his, then hers. Alcoholic drugs and madness led Veronica to her premature death. She was only 54 years old when it happened, but by then she was no longer alive, at least visibly, as her illness consumed her fiercely.
Madrid, 1979
Ferdinand and Veronica They met when they were twenty years old. They were a happy couple who enjoyed —like so many other couples in the city— de what in Madrid was known as "The move". This was a countercultural movement that emerged during the scoop of the transition from Francoist Spain. The happiness of the couple was characterized, above all, by a bohemian approach whose main entertainment was cinema, literature and music.
Back then, Madrid was breathing a new wave of growth and freedom, both political and social. Everything seemed possible back then. Verónica was a girl who came from France, although she, in reality, she could have been born anywhere else. She carried with her an uprooting maximized by her new environment. Meanwhile, Francisco presented himself as a shy young man who wanted to be a director of cinema.
bars and culture
En burn this book, Francisco Marías talks about the prevailing culture in Madrid during his years of dating Verónica. Much of this story frequently resorts to bars like Penta or La Vía Láctea. During that time, Francisco finally created the first of his professional shorts. This included the performance of one of the stars of that moment: Antonio Vega. The director's emerging fame made the couple attend more and more parties.
The resplendent nocturnal tasks of Madrid urged to meet other celebrities who lived a life as exciting as Francisco and Verónica. The couple was fascinated by the tribulations suffered by the most eminent literati due to alcoholism. Characters like Edgar Allan Poe or Scott Fitzgerald seemed to them most admirable, as well as interesting and imitable. His extravagant ways of living kept them fascinated.
the first drink
Although Francisco was already a regular drinker, Verónica did not feel inclined to share this habit, which she found somewhat repugnant. Marías was very insistent with her partner when selling her first gin and tonic as a mandatory process so that he could enjoy life better. In the end, she agrees to drink just one to try. Later, the author would write: “One of the founding phrases of our life. Also the worst."
No matter how hard the story is, Francisco Marías never addresses his excesses in an excessive way. However, it does allow the reader to imagine all the events that led to the true fall into vice that completely consumed them. One day in 1997, Marías was on the verge of death. After two interventions in the hospital, she decided to stop drinking forever. However, Verónica did not follow the same path.
One life and one drink
After Francisco's decision, the couple's life was never the same again. While he stayed sober to pursue a writing career, she sank deeper into her vices. Nearly nineteen years of living together turned to dust. One fine day, Verónica returned to France. It was in her home country that she met her death.
About the author, Fernando Marías Amondo
Fernando Marias Amondo
Fernando Marías Amondo was born in 1958, in Bilbao, Spain. For Marías, his life began when he moved to the capital of his country to study film. However, it was his lyrics that gave him true fame. In 1990 his debut feature, The wonderful light. The work managed to obtain the City of Barbastro Award. In the same way, it was made into a movie by Miguel Hermoso in later years.
The moment Francisco Marías began to write, he did not stop. He thus wrote, edited and published several novels, such as The island of the Father, with which he won the Biblioteca Breve Award (2015), or The child Colonels —winner of the Nadal Award (2021)—. The same way, Francisco Marías founded and participated in several cultural groups focused on literature, as well as Children of Mary Shelley or Diodati. Marías passed away in 2022 due to liver failure.
Other books by Francisco Marías
- Tonight i will die (1992);
- Hidden Pages of History (1997);
- fabulous men movie (1998);
- The battle of Matxitxako (2001);
- The woman with the gray wings (2003);
- Invader (2004);
- sky below (2005);
- The world ends every day (2005);
- Zara and the bookseller from Baghdad (2008);
- All the love and almost all death (2010);
- The silence moves (2010);
- On the other side of the compass (2021)