Madrid (EFE).- The writer Fernando Aramburu (San Sebastián, 1959) is aware that for many of his countrymen he is “a pain in the ass” but, according to what he says, he cannot avoid getting into “ponds full of alligators” when he starts writing “: “I do not care. If I was afraid to write, I would garden or play chess.
Aramburu has presented his new novel “Hijos de la fábula” (Tusquets) in Madrid, a story that occurred to him at the same time as that of “Patria”, following ETA’s announcement of the end of armed activity.
With two very different approaches and after the great success of “Patria”, Aramburu began this novel after wondering if when ETA decided to quit, all the militants really agreed with the decision of their bosses or could there be some who on their own decided to continue with the so-called armed struggle.
“Hijos de la fábula” stars two excited young people, Asier and Joseba, who march in 2011 to the south of France to become ETA militants. They await instructions at a chicken farm when they learn that the gang has announced a cessation of armed activity. Left to their own devices, without money, experience or weapons, they decide to continue the fight on their own, founding their own organization, an adventure that often puts them on the brink of grotesque.
Fernando Aramburu believes that satirizing totalitarianism or injustice is a very healthy exercise, although he maintains that he will never subordinate his literary work to postulating something or defending a thesis: “I do have a moral filter,” he explains, which makes him fear not being up to the task. height “and cause harm to those who have already suffered”, something that, he assures, he would not forgive himself.
The fact that this book left the victims of ETA out, since no mention is made of them in the novel, left him “his hands free for satire”, the author has indicated, who has explained, however, that he consulted the argument with a victim, who told him it was fine.
“Sometimes there is talk of the limits of humor, which are established by the Penal Code, apart from those that the author imposes if he has ethical criteria,” said Aramburu.
The Basque writer, who has lived in Germany for years, says that although the sales of his books are great in the Basque Country, as his literature is accompanied by interviews with statements that are very hostile to nationalism, he knows that it becomes “uncomfortable” for certain people for whom he feels “unloved.” But he assures that he doesn’t care.
Fernando Aramburu has considered that his latest novel is in the wake of a sentence by Fernando Savater about ETA: “We aspired to survive the terrorists and then laugh at them.” “It is the purpose, that without realizing it, I moved my hands when I wrote,” he admits.
This novel is part of a series of novels or stories about “Basque people”, dedicated to “the ordinary residents of the Basque Country”, explained Aramburu, who has expressed his fascination for the human being and language: “That is why all my novels are about coexistence, about people who lived in the same place as me».
Aramburu, who with “Patria” won awards such as the National Narrative, the Critics, the European Strega, Lampedusa, or the City of Athens, among others, says he is not capable of writing a crime novel, nor a historical one; Instead, “I put two Basques on the mountain and I know I’m going to get the most out of them,” he concludes.
