Carlos Zanón: "Being a man implies a certain emotional handicap"

• Zanon and asphalt Homer in a taxi

Carlos Zanón (Barcelona, ​​1966) belongs to that stronghold of faithful that continues to come every month with unwavering loyalty to the magazine

, the last bastion of

lovers in Spain. There he read a long time ago an article about how for

. "

And so was born, a bit by flash, what is his sixth novel,

(Salamandra; on sale January 13), seventh if we count

, the continuation of the Carvalho series.

Love Song

is a

about three good, already tall musicians, somewhat punished by life and somewhat sentimentally defeated, who embark on

. Their names are Cowboy, Jim, and Eileen (

from Dexy's Midnight Runners is hard to read without mentally humming

), and although they begin the journey as a well-matched triangle, it

.

«I am attracted to talented people who know how to express themselves through creation and who find beauty in music. In general, I've always been interested in how we end up living to be able to do that, to be able to write or compose. The idea of ​​three very good musicians playing songs from 1985 on campsites where no one recognizes them seemed very funny to me ", explains Zanón. And that's the way it is: Eileen, Jim and Cowboy wander around seedy clubs playing rock and roll and weird songs from '90s bands while

and

of The Rolling Stones, it slips away hopelessly.

Why did Eileen decide to stay and live in 1985?

«I was 19 years old and I remember songs that were like sparkles.

Many of the records that I still like are from that year, like Prefab Sprout's

or

by the Waterboys.

It was a peaceful time, in which it seemed that nothing was happening.

Neither the main trio nor the supporting trio of

are what we would call people of order, but rather the type of people who continue to mess up night after night, as if they carry inside

. "

“Creative people are generally quite incapable of managing civilian life.

Creation and acting are such a beast that then you have a hard time landing.

Drugs, getting into trouble, or messing up is a way of feeling like you're still on the go.

For the protagonists it is their way of life.

Sometimes what helps you to fly very high prevents you from walking ”, reflects Zanón, who describes

his characters with enough distance to ward off any hint of idealization of bad life.

“What I like least about this whole world is the folkloric romanticism of the rock star or the tormented artist,

.

No matter how little you have lived, you know how badly that always ends », he points out.

"I was interested in explaining that

," he explains. “There was a moment when I realized that I was explaining the Byron and Shelley story. They both died to prove something to the other: Byron died in Greece, fighting for freedom against the Turks, trying to do something altruistic that Shelley would have loved; and Shelley drowned on a ship in the middle of a storm, which is very Byronic. In the novel,

. "

But surely what resonates the most about

is the inability of its protagonists to know what is going on inside and explain it. «This is

are . That feeling that when you enter a place, your own volume makes you end up spoiling everything. I was interested in reflecting on how the fact of being a man sometimes represents an emotional handicap ”, points out the author of

. "Beyond defending the lion tribe, there is nothing we can do halfway better than you," he jokes.

There is also in

the need to get lost on the way home. «One, to become an adult,

that bind and sustain him. In fact, until you lose your parents, you don't face life.

The novel is crossed from the first to the last page by illness, which appears and disappears like a shadow that is an

of decisions. «I have always been interested in the subject. I was ill for a long time », explains the writer from Barcelona. “At 18 I was diagnosed with hepatitis C. I did many treatments, some very aggressive that did not work. But just when my cancer index skyrocketed and I was already on the waiting list for a transplant, a new drug began to be marketed that cured me. I was very lucky".

That's why all of the songs Eileen plays in the novel are by The Muffs, a Californian punk rock band from the 90s whose singer and guitarist, Kim Shattuck, passed away from ELA. «

. In my case, I couldn't drink alcohol but when they tell you that at 18 years old, some days you forget. Let's just say I didn't take care of myself as much as I should have. And when I was healed, I craved to make up for lost time. Everyone has their obsessions. In Eileen's case, she knows how the story is going to end and so she decides to set Jim free before it all ends.

"I needed to get out of my comfort zone," concludes the author of

.

«Never do crime novels again.

After

and

I wanted to leave Barcelona.

This is an important book for me, “he sums up.

"A full stop with everything I've done so far."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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