The spark that ignited Marta Orriols' (Sabadell, 1975) latest novel was found on television. Listening to the former TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio correspondent in Lebanon, Txell Feixas, the writer began to think about the life of a correspondent, far from family and friends, in a completely different reality, often harsher. "What must she do when the microphones are turned off?" she wondered.
She was interested in talking about someone who returns and, based on Feixas's figure, the writer "gave her literary life," while still contacting her to understand what her daily life was like in the Middle East and to approach the journalistic world, a profession she sees as similar to literature, both "seek the truth and play with emotion."
Weaving a story about a correspondent implicitly involved traveling to see how she works, but a pandemic changed Orriols' plans to construct Ese lugar al que llamamos casa (Destino), which she began writing in 2020, with the health crisis even blocking her. When borders reopened, the author already had the novel well underway, with a protagonist, Valentina, returning to Barcelona, after forcibly abandoning the initial idea of setting it in Lebanon.
Despite the return journey, she decided to include scenes set in the Middle East, compensating for the distance by listening to chronicles like Feixas's, but also reading another correspondent, Agus Morales. When she needed to see what the settings were like and couldn't find it in the media, she resorted to Getty Images.
Once the protagonist and her path were defined, Orriols didn't worry too much about the plot, "I don't usually like them much," nor about how the character would evolve, "I don't usually know where I'm going." What she does know matters to her are personal relationships. With family, even if it's one "where nothing big ever happens" and the worst problem is a lack of communication, friends, and partners. On this journey of return, also vital, Valentina will feel curious about a woman and will reunite with her ex. Small conflicts that nourish the decisions the character makes.
"The literature that interests me is a dialogue with life," she summarizes. And the underlying question this time will be how the passage of time and distance affect things, and what can be considered home, even though the Catalan writer already points out that "home is not the place where you were born but where you feel you can be yourself."
Orriols' third and final novel is published this Wednesday in Catalan, La possibilitat de dir-ne casa (Proa), and in Spanish it will go on sale next week with Destino. With this story that begins at an airport, Orriols returns and changes publishers in Catalan due to a personal decision after having published her first books with Periscopi, specifically, the short stories of Anatomia de les distàncies curtes (2016), and the novels Aprendre a parlar amb les plantes (2018) and Dolça introducció al caos (2020). In Spanish, Aprender a hablar con las plantas and Dulce introducción al caos, both were edited by Lumen, 2018. With the success of her first novel, the author has managed to be translated into sixteen languages, among which are English, French, Italian, Chinese or Arabic.