Estel Solé goes down to the mine to win the Ramon Llull Prize

The writer and actress Estel Solé (Molins de Rei, 1987) has spent years stealing time from time to finish Aquest tros de vida, the novel that has made her the winner of the 45th Ramon Llull Catalan Letters Prize, endowed with 60,000 euros. "This award comes after going through the worst year of my life. For me, it has been very complicated to write this novel. I have done it in bars, at ungodly hours...", explains the author. Waking up before her children did or having her mother take care of them at night, working with the computer at a table while the rest of the customers had gin and tonics. "It's not me, but I'm always in all my characters. Because there are no dogs, but also. Watch what you do because you'll end up in my novel," she warns.

Hence Lena, the protagonist, is an ambitious scientist who talks about precariousness, work-life balance, the end of a marriage, machismo. "Undoubtedly, a fighting and warrior protagonist was going to emerge," says Estel Solé. The origin of this story was a scene of obstetric violence in a gynecological test done without much tact. "There is a lot of life in here, with all the edges, lights and shadows it has," she remarks. There are also ghosts, mistakes and a road trip with a stranger. To the south of France, where she will have to live with a rather peculiar couple. "What happens in that house will change the course of her life," the writer from Molins de Rei anticipates.

"Writing is a tortuous thing. I am very demanding with myself, it has taken me more than three years to write this novel. For me, it means going down to the cave, going to look for the words and seeing what is there. In this descent, what I extract from the rock I demand that it be absolutely honest. Writing means facing ghosts and it is hard to recognize vulnerabilities," she explains. A simile that links with the story of her grandparents, miners in Murcia, a tribute that also portrays the luxury that writing represents and how family and class influence: "Writing is a privilege. Not everyone who wants to writes, but only those who can."

Aquest tros de vida will be published on February 26 by Columna in Catalan and by Destino in Spanish. It is Solé's second novel, after Si no puc volar (2016). In 1997, at just 10 years old, she already won an honorable mention for the Mercè Rodoreda literary narrative prize with the work Estranya guineu de setembre. She has also written poetry, Dones que somiaven ser altres dones (Amadeu Oller Prize); theater, with her Animals de Companyia touring internationally; and children's stories, with the compilation of stories Cap de grills. However, she is also a well-known face for having acted in the TV3 series La riera, as well as in several films and plays.