“It was not an animal, perhaps not a human being either, it seemed like a broken, lost, ignored angel”, this is a fragment of “Extrañas”, the new book by Mexican Guillermo Arriaga, winner of the 2020 Alfaguara Novel Award, who will come to Colombia as a guest special of the International Book Fair, in April.
“Strange” covers the fascinating takeoff of science in the eighteenth century and its struggle with religious and aristocratic positions. At the heart of this novel lies a profound reflection on the unfathomable human condition and empathetically takes us into the world of the different and the anomalous, in a parade of endearing characters with lives on the edge.
Arriaga takes a turn in his narrative with this masterful novel, whose fierceness leads the reader to vertigo and to confront himself with his most intimate fears, sorrows, and prejudices.
“If humanity wanted to progress, it was imperative not to leave anyone behind, to never condemn strangers to confinement, or relegate them as beasts,” notes the writer and screenwriter, who in an exclusive conversation with EL NUEVO SIGLO said that he He is anxious to return to Colombia and present “Extrañas”, by Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial.
EL NUEVO SIGLO: What do you mean by “Strangers”, the title of your most recent book?
WILLIAM ARRIAGA: “Strangers” is a type of people around us, human beings that appear on page 300 of the book, beings that have a physical anomaly that only occurs every 300 years, so I thought I would talk about strangers at various times, between the year 1000 in Mongolia, Norway in 1400, England in 1780 and contemporary Mexico, but basically takes place in England in the 18th century, when an heir to the Burton family, the young William, must travel through his family’s lands to reclaim them. as yours Deep in those villages he becomes aware of the presence of strange beings that he never believed could exist, deformed beings with no ability to communicate, living like animals exposed to the elements. This is how he takes this journey through science and medicine to be able to explain a little who are these extraordinary beings that he must face.
ENS: Since it’s a fascinating mystery, what kind of strange beings appear in the story?
GA: They are beings that made themselves known through research. But what is interesting about all of this is that by chance these ‘strange’ were born and reached adulthood, because these beings with this physical anomaly are born and die very quickly.
ENS: What did it mean to win the Alfaguara Novel Prize in 2020?
GA: Winning the Alfaguara filled me with joy and has allowed me to project myself much more. I had four trips planned to Colombia, including Cartagena, but unfortunately my heart broke because it was canceled due to the pandemic. I had to go to Cali, Pereira, Barranquilla, Medellín, Bogotá and Cartagena. Now I feel a great joy to return.
ENS: What are the expectations at the Book Fair?
GA: I am going to officially present my new novel, “Extrañas”, on April 30 and I will do it with enormous pride and happiness that it is my dear Claudia Morales who is going to present me. I am going to Colombia with great expectations, I hope that the book will be well received.
ENS: For you, as a writer of film scripts and novel books, what would be the narrative difference between these genres?
GA: For me there is no substantial difference, I think that what I do is literature in all cases. For me, writing the novel is the same as writing a play or a script. In everything I write I put the same effort, the same language, the same structure and syntactic construction. Suddenly there is a small difference and that is that in the novel there is always a first person; even if it is led by an omniscient third-person narrator, it will always be in the first person, while in the cinema it will always be a third-person narrator.
ENS: From your sphere, how have you seen the development of Colombian literature?
GA: I think you have tremendous writers, like Piedad Bonnett, Santiago Gamboa, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Jorge Franco, Julián Ospina and many more that don’t come to mind at this moment, but they are tremendous writers. I see that they have a very strong tradition inherited from those old masters like Hernando Téllez and later Mutis, Gabriel García Márquez. I believe that Colombia has very good literature.
ENS: Throughout your career as a writer and screenwriter, what positive things has this path brought you?
GA: It has brought me many friends, many curious trips. It’s amazing how literature can unite you with people you didn’t know. Gabriel García Márquez said it: it is curious how literature can unite you with people. Really one writes so that they want it, beyond that, the books have connected me with the public, with beings that have given me happiness in my personal and professional life. Literature is a piece that unites, that connects you with the other. It is satisfying to look back and see everything that has been built through literature.
ENS: When you sit down to write, what do you enjoy the most?
GA: I enjoy everything. For me, writing a novel, a poem or a script has the same fury and emotion. It is the same process, a very beautiful and fantastic world.
About the Author
Guillermo Arriaga has published the novels “Escuadrón guillotina” (1991), “A sweet smell of death” (1994), “El búfalo de la noche” (1999), “El salvaje” (2016) –Mazatlán Prize for Literature 2017, selected in several countries as one of the best novels of the year–, and “Salvar el fuego” –Alfaguara Novel Award 2020–, as well as the short story collection “Retorno 201” (2006).
His work has been translated into twenty languages. He is the author of the scripts for the films “Amores perros”, “21 grams”, “Babel” –for which he was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Bafta Award for best original screenplay– and “The three burials of Melquiades Estrada”, which received the Best Writer Award at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2008 he presented “The burning plain”, his directorial debut. He produced and co-wrote the story of “De allá”, the first Ibero-American film to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Festival.
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