Eugeni Verdú: Nothing is a coincidence

"I am a practicing lawyer, and I like it, but I have always forced myself, stealing time from time, to continue with letters and art. If I weren't the night owl I am, it would have been impossible," explains Eugeni Verdú, with a fresh cane in hand, leaning against the bar counter, after asking that if anything is to play in the background, it should be La Competència from RAC1 or one of his reference bands: classic rock of the caliber of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, or Lou Reed, the antithesis of that frustrating radio of his youth, based "on Julio Iglesias, Raphael, or Camilo Sesto, which gave me the feeling of living in a country that was not mine." Night has fallen, and he is at the end of his workday, and the beginning of the other.

A practicing lawyer since 1981, this Barcelona native, vintage '57, debuted in 2010 as a writer with the historical intrigue novel Opus Spicatum: La Crónica Prohibida and has just, as they say, returned to the arena with his second work, the successful La abadía de los herejes (Roca). "Now I am reviewing the text again to prepare the paperback edition which, according to what I am told, will already carry the bestseller label, which I do not value for its economic implications, but because it encourages me to keep working. It is comforting to know that the reader liked you, that the sacrifice was worth it."

--- And are you already preparing a new work?

--- In the medium term, I think I will start to conceive it, but first I will work on a lot of documentation.

Of a curious nature, "eager to learn and with a good dose of perseverance," in his youth, the regular customer got his best grades in history, literature, and painting subjects. "Coincidence? I don't think so." At sixteen, he was already writing, photographing, painting, and playing the guitar.

--- You were in a rock band, weren't you?

--- Yes. And after eleven years, we have decided to regroup, although it will have an expiration date: two rehearsals and one performance for this autumn. My dedication to music is conceived solely as a hobby, but it is fair to recognize that it has turned out to be the best and most immediate escape valve. It's like boxing, but exchanging gloves for watts.

Pulling the thread

Convinced that there is always a common thread in his trajectory, the writer states that when he writes, paints, or studies, he does not do it "thinking about the future, but simply to satisfy a personal need of the moment." For example, when he finished his first novel, he reread it and simply put it away in a drawer. "Years later, by chance, a publishing house looking for new writers learned about me through the dealer who handled my paintings. That's how I got published."

--- And what about the paintings?

--- Similar. Regarding painting, a client from my own law firm discovered me. Imagine how destiny plays out! Coincidence or causality?

Who knows? The fact is that finding the root of that thread that unites art, sound, and writing is not easy and refers to various moments such as "the day that, as a child, I wanted to paint Nonell's oil paintings to, many years later, end up doing abstract expressionism, or the summer when I conceived my first novel, or that winter when I decided to study Mayan civilization and ended up fascinated by all pre-Columbian cultures, African art, and Romanesque art. Or, also, when I bought an electric guitar and decided to form a rock band. In any case, it must be pointed out that, although these moments are important and cumulative, it is very possible that everything would have come to nothing without the success I had in opening, after my father's death, a multidisciplinary law firm with two of my best friends. Law wore me out a lot, but it has also given me everything."

A city he likes to know is there

"Barcelona saw me born and, although I am not prone to walking its streets or swimming in its beaches, I wouldn't know how to move anywhere else. I like to know that I have the sea and the Gothic Quarter very close, even if I don't see them," explains the local, finishing the last sips of his beer and already ordering another, before confessing to be "admired by the capacity for resilience of this city: that ability to successfully face continuous adversities."

Especially annoyed with "those politicians obsessed with expelling cars from the city without presenting alternatives," Eugeni Verdú defines "reducing the number of lanes on streets or slowing down improvements to their accesses" as absurd measures that imply an exponential increase in air and acoustic pollution. "You don't have to be very clever to know that these traffic jams and collapses multiply by three the pollution suffered by citizens, the energy consumed, the economic cost, the lost time, and the stress involved; but that doesn't seem to matter to our officials." For this reason, he assures that years ago he gave up using his car to drive around Barcelona. "But what is certain is that eliminating lanes is not the solution."

--- What solves many things is our gastronomic offer. And that second beer can be accompanied by a menu, some tapas, portions, or a combined dish. Everything exquisite.

Something then shines in Eugeni Verdú's eyes, who focuses his attention on the available provisions and thinks about it for a moment, before admitting that he doesn't eat much.

--- But I am very much a sybarite –he quickly adds--, so I'll stick with the portions, and of course with the tapas alternative!