A short story by Rudyard Kipling, the author of The Jungle Book, was adapted to film by the legendary director John Huston. They titled it The Man Who Would Be King (1975), and its protagonists, magnificent Sean Connery and Michael Caine, played two British army adventurers who arrive in the unknown region of Kafiristan. There, one of them is possessed by a god and decides to stay and marry. A masterpiece of adventure cinema. And, at the same time, a reference that, contrasted with certain real lives, also makes it clear to us that reality always ends up surpassing fiction.
Carmen Balcells, traficante de palabras (Debate, 2022) is a biography about the literary agent who shook the publishing sector and her relationship with authors. The book was the perfect excuse to have a conversation full of adventure stories, with Carme Riera. She was one of the many illustrious writers who passed through Balcells' professional and professionalizing hands. She dealt with her for almost forty years and has written a book that did not intend to canonize her, but which in the cycle The New Barcelona – Moments Estel·lars, at Casa Seat, she assured us that it ends up leaving Balcells in the very good place she deserves.
Eccentric. She had an astrologer on her payroll who made the astral chart for authors candidates to pass through her hands. And, from there, Balcells would end up deciding whether or not to make them her clients. She also couldn't stand the 12+1 (neither could I).
All-powerful. She got her authors everything imagination could reach, and, sometimes, a little more than imaginable. From moving them wherever they wanted on a day of general traffic jam due to a public transport strike in the capital, to making them enjoy the best meals and, if necessary, she would sweep away all the elver cargo available at the restaurant in question.
Effective. She marked a before and after in the global publishing world, ending lifelong contracts and the draconian conditions that many publishers imposed on writers. She promoted Barcelona's literary capital status in the world.
Olympic. She managed to represent the Olympus of Spanish-speaking authors. Six Nobel Prizes in Literature (Asturias, Neruda, Aleixandre, García Márquez, Cela, and Vargas Llosa). And she introduced authors of the stature of Cortázar, Allende, Vázquez Montalbán, Moix, Mendoza, Marsé, Delibes, Cercas, or Montero, among others.
Hence, perhaps, that she, despite the creator of detective Pepe Carvalho comparing her to James Bond and saying she was an agent "with a license to kill," felt more identified with the protagonist of that great Ford film, and doubled down on her bet. She would not be the woman who wanted to be queen. She wanted to be God. This is how Carme Riera explained it to us, recalling that Balcells even threw a party where she entered dressed as a Popess. What a great conversation. What adventures. What a desire to read this biography. I leave you here the links to recover the conversation via Spotify or Youtube.