The attempt to isolate himself to write a new novel takes Roberto Lobeira’s character to an island as paradisiacal as it is terrible. “When the storm passes” (Planet) with which Manuel Loureiro won the 2024 Lara Novel Prize, worth 120,000 euros. During his visit to Buenos Aires we spoke with him.
Journalist: Why did you add genres like fantasy and horror to your thriller?
Manel Loureiro: Narrative genres are increasingly mixed, not only in literature, in film, on television; it is a sign of the evolution of the times. Finally, genres are nothing more than more or less arbitrary labels to organize things. We love to have neat drawers and know where everything is: romance, history, police, fantasy, but reality is infinitely more complex. When you evolve in telling stories – something that does not stop happening since we live in an audiovisual narrative world – the limits overflow and the genres mix, making the labels become obsolete. In “When the storm passes” under the guise of thriller, of black novel, traditions, folklore, fantasy, horror appear.
Q: What was the starting point?
ML: I had long been interested in rural hatreds, the old theme of “small town, big hell.” In cities, grudges and rivalries fade away, but in a town of thirty inhabitants, the embers are fanned daily, and only end when the tension accumulated over decades explodes and the protagonists appear on the news. I was looking for a scenario like this, and I discovered it on the Galician island of Ons, a paradise battered by the waves of the Atlantic, a National Park where motor vehicles are prohibited, electricity is rationed, and in winter it is isolated by storms that prevent boats from mooring at its only dock. Where if something happens, no one can get out. It is the 19th century, and in the distance you can see one of the most touristic coasts in Europe, the 21st century.
Q: Why does someone who looks like him go to that island?
ML: Roberto Lobeira wants to isolate himself to write a new novel, after having surprisingly had success with his first work, that is something we have in common. When he arrives on the island he begins to discover that the inhabitants shelter a whirlwind of hatred, unspeakable secrets and an excessive ambition. As soon as Roberto arrives someone leaves him a bloody gift, which he cannot understand. There are two dominant families facing each other like Montagues and Capulets. A bundle that comes out of the sea full of something that makes the confrontations explode. And a lurking presence that perhaps is not earthly. There is a serial killer.
Q: What led you to recover those legends?
ML: I was born in Galicia hearing stories of goblins, witches, meigas, of A noite de Samhain, which are the same ones that can be told to a child in Ireland, Wales, Brittany, Scotland, where the Celtic tradition lives. Incorporating some of that is a kind of vindication. Installing those themes in the novel gives it credibility and a mystery, intrigue, and additional emotion. It gives the story greater density. Even more so when the protagonist does not believe in any of that, even though an old woman from the village warns him: you will not believe in evil, but evil believes in you. That is when Roberto begins to doubt and think about how he will survive until he can escape from the island.
Q: How did you decide on the pace of the novel?
ML: The structure, which goes back and forth through a series of events, evokes classic novels, the closed universe of Agatha Christie, but has a lot of plumbing, a lot of meta-literature underneath. The long arc of the novel coincides with the meteorological arc. The story begins when the storm begins to break out, it increases in intensity along with the storm and reaches its climax at the same time, and the resolution coincides with the storm calming down. The chapters are set in waves, eight pages that close with a cliffhanger, a surprise, a twist, a revelation, which encourages you to continue reading. Suspense, if not dosed, is boring. These waves of the story have a cumulative effect that increases the pace of reading and establishes the narrative rhythm of the thriller.
Q: Why did you need what you call plumbing?
ML: Today, when people read more than ever, but in different formats, readers are very clever. They have read a lot, they have seen many films, many television series and they know the mechanisms of the genres very well. This requires greater elaboration if you want to continue entertaining, interesting, surprising. In “When the storm passes” at the end, stories that seemed scattered come together, the plot of the bundle with its explosive content, the foolish forbidden couple of the boys in love, that of the hitmen who appear despite the storm, that of the monster who killed his wife and children, the quarrels that are about power and big money, the Buraco do Inferno where the laments of the damned souls are heard. All this helps the reader try to guess the ending and not stop reading until the story is finished.
Q: Is the Lara Prize you won for your novel only for Spanish writers?
ML: No, the Fernando Lara Novel Prize is broader, it has awarded prizes to the Cuban Zoe Valdés and the Irishman Ian Gibson, but it is true that it has privileged Spaniards such as Fernando Sánchez Drago, Luis Racionero, Javier Reverte, among others. I felt it as a recognition of my 18-year career and 9 novels.
Q: What are you working on now?
ML: Researching a new novel, but above all waiting for October 31st when “Apocalypse Z. The Beginning of the End” will be released on Amazon Prime Video, simultaneously in 192 countries. This film is based on my first novel, which in 2007 began as a blog, went viral, and then became a book and a trilogy.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
