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A master of suspense and plot twists,

Javier Castillo

is a thirty-something from Mijas who has managed to become one of the

most widely read

thriller authors in 63 countries, with 1,700,000 copies sold in a dozen languages.

He smiles nostalgically when talking about his beginnings as a writer, when that word seemed too big for him.

His eyes shine when he is reminded that the adaptation of his work

The Snow Girl

is number 1 on Netflix in Europe, and that it has entered the world top 10, surpassing

Wednesday.

He limits himself to affirming that he "does not understand anything".

He rampages on and off the platforms;

he only needs to release a record, although he assures with a laugh that singing is not his thing.

In his sixth novel,

The Crystal Cuckoo

(Suma)

, returns to New York to delve into the story of Cora Merlo, a young doctor who needs an urgent heart transplant and who must deal with the family secrets of her mysterious donor.

Q. Your love for books comes from afar.

Was he a lonely child, one of those who write to escape?

R.

No, he wasn't very lonely, he had a lot of friends.

But there was a time when things happened in my house... not very pleasant, let's say, and I had to stay at home to help and take care of my mother.

That's how I started reading.

In my neighborhood there was the Hermanas Gómez stationery store, I remember perfectly.

It had a rotating display case with paperbacks.

They were mostly by Agatha Christie, who fascinated me right away.

She would say, "My God, what an outrage, she has cheated on me."

I wanted to do something like that, and I started writing stories, always imitating the stories I read.

As I got older, I kept that passion, but it was time to decide what to study.

And the world of books is very difficult, very precarious, a privilege reserved only for a few.

I studied Business because I had more outlets and I had always been good at Mathematics and Economics.

Life was leading me down that path.

P. By inertia, I imagine.

R.

Yes, mostly out of inertia, but I was lucky to find out soon that what I really liked was writing.

I tried different things, but always came back to writing.

The days and years passed, and I had made my life working in finance, I was a business consultant.

Writing was just a hobby.

But when I published my first novel in 2017, the madness suddenly broke out.

It was surreal.

What's more, I remember that it was published on February 2 and on the 3rd my editor called me saying: "We don't understand anything about what is happening."

Four issues were printed in the first week alone.

I did a first signing in Malaga that went very well, there were many friends and family, but also followers who had read the digital book.

So I asked through the networks where they wanted me to sign, and Murcia won.

When I got there it was incredible, there were about 800 or 900 people queuing up, with a lot of love.

The copies of all the bookstores in Murcia were sold out, people called to ask where they could find it... That's where it all began.

Every week it was crazier, more amazing.

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Q. You wrote

The day sanity was lost

on a suburban train between Fuengirola and Malaga.

Do you get inspiration from transportation, like JK Rowling?

R.

It's funny, actually it was because I hardly had time to write.

He worked Monday through Friday, coming in at nine in the morning and leaving at nine at night.

He lived 45 minutes from work and wondered what he could during that time.

He had been toying with an idea for a couple of years.

The story seemed good to me, so I would take out the computer and start writing because it was the only time I had.

When I came home I wanted to be with my wife.

Q. Your novels reflect the American idiosyncrasy very well.

Why is she so attractive to him, if she has never lived there?

R.

I have read a lot from abroad, and I have also consumed a lot of American movies and series, like everyone else.

The fact is that

The day sanity was lost

, for example, had many twists and a very explosive

thriller

component .

It was a crazy plot, so intense that it seemed improbable to place it in Spain because nobody was going to take it seriously.

I did a lot of research and decided to set the plot in the United States, something that I have been repeating out of habit in the rest of the books.

Q. When writing, you follow a somewhat "audiovisual" structure.

Are you looking to make cinema with words or is it a mere product of chance?

R.

When writing, I seek to move people with the stories, so I narrate what happens to the characters and how that impacts them at all times.

I am usually very visual, I want to reflect facts and emotions, action and reaction.

I try not to have too much description, because descriptions don't excite me at all.

To other authors, yes.

That makes my books different.

For example, if a character sees a dead body, I don't focus on describing the details of the coroner's room or the dead body itself.

I pay attention to how the person who sees it feels.

Q. To write

El cuco de cristal

you will have had to research medical issues.

What is that research process like?

A.

What I do first is plan what is going to happen.

Then I put myself in the mode of, come on, let's tell things as truthfully as possible.

Luckily, in the field of medicine there is a lot published: there are studies, methods, reports.

In the case of heart transplants, they explain all the previous procedure and what your life will be like afterwards.

The novel is the result of spending many hours reading.

At the end, I ask people who know to verify that what I have written is like that.

Q. You have a certain predilection for choral works, where multiple voices coexist.

Is literature a kinder place to exchange perspectives than the current reality?

R.

Literature allows you to touch on issues that we do not face in our day to day due to the rigidity of the system, due to the permanent whirlwind of this world.

In the case of

The Snow Girl

I wanted to criticize sensationalist journalism, because it gave me the feeling that it was losing focus on reality.

I wrote it at a time when everyone was looking for Julen, and there was a lot of curiosity and a lot of noise.

I conceive that when you write you have to entertain and talk about issues that are relevant.

In the new book I talk about prejudices about organ donation, the rejection of the physical appearance of people with certain diseases... There are many prejudices, because we tend to always think badly of those who help, we believe that the world moves out of interest.

I am very positive with society and I think that most people are moved by goodness.

The writer Javier Castillo. José Aymá

Q. You talk about human goodness, but do you think that people have a part in cuckoos?

R.

There are people who are.

That behave like a parasite, sucking your energy.

As soon as you spend a couple of hours with them, you end up exhausted.

These types of people are a bit cute, they settle in your thoughts, in your head.

But in general it is not so.

Although, in the novel, the figure of the cuckoo is flying over the entire plot.

Q. Do we tend to colonize spaces or people that do not belong to us out of pure selfishness?

R.

Yes, because we believe that we are masters of what is close to us.

Cuckoos do something similar.

We have the mistaken conception that our environment belongs to us, but the environment completes us, we have no right over it.

I try to surround myself with people who make me feel more "me".

People you can peel potatoes with and laugh with, who don't make you feel uncomfortable, you know?

Q.

The snow girl

was the most read novel in Spain during confinement.

Now the miniseries has become the second most watched premiere on Netflix.

Not exactly an easy story to digest.

Does the human being face his own horror by immersing himself in the horror of others?

R.

There is something in the books that allows you to escape, travel to another place and not think about anything else.

But look, I don't think this time it was to look for the horror in others, but rather to be part of something.

The snow girl

is a quest, and at that time of the pandemic we were all lost.

Locked up at home, but we didn't really meet.

There was no trace of our previous life.

The fact that there was the same search where so many people were involved was what made it successful.

Everyone wanted to find Kira in the novel, and now Amaya in the series.

Q. You have been compared to great writers like Jöel Dicker or Stephen King.

How do you deal with being called the "master of Spanish suspense"?

R.

Let's see, I always go with a lot of humility.

Being compared to those geniuses is a compliment, a gift, because I admire them a lot.

I know Dicker personally and have grown up reading Stephen King.

He is the teacher of teachers, a man who is almost 80 years old and has already written everything and well.

He takes me a long way;

I only have six novels, in which I have tried to improve.

King will hear every week that one like him has come out in Poland, another in Italy, another in Holland... I imagine him laughing at his house.

But my goal is that in a lot of years people will recognize my style, that they won't say "he looks like Stephen King", but rather "he's a Javier Castillo".

When I am 70 years old I hope to continue writing with the same passion.

Q. As a reader and writer you like plot twists, the more unexpected, the better.

And in his personal life?

R.

I like to control certain things.

When you have children, if you are not organized, a pack of dogs is assembled at home.

I need to know when I can write, when I have to take them to school, how many days a week they have extracurriculars... But I never fill my agenda with plans.

I leave the weekend free and let's improvise.

I never know exactly what I'm going to do on Saturday or Sunday.

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