“70% of fiction books are read by women”

A silence full of murmurs (Seix Barral), Nicaraguan writer’s latest novel Belle Giocondais, according to the writer, a Daughters Recognition Already the children of the generation that was part of the revolutions in Latin America. But also, in his words, a way of processing “DisillusionI think it is something that we all carry in Latin America we had the hope that another world was possible. ”

The Nicaraguan, Key figure of contemporary Latin American literatureis in Buenos Aires to present this new novel, which closes the trilogy started with The inhabited woman y The country under my skin. Written during pandemic, He focuses on Penelope, daughter of a revolutionary motherand it is a tribute to the generations that grew between the echoes of social struggles.

In dialogue with ClarionBelli reflected on The impact of the revolution on family relationshipsthe connection between literature and social transformation, and the essential role of women as creators and readers. From Your exile in Spainreaffirms its commitment to literature as a resistance and hope tool in the face of current challenges.

– “The children of those who get involved in the revolution suffered a kind of abandonment. That of the fathers was accepted. Another thing happened with the mothers. That maternal absence loaded both parties with a very painful level of reproach and guilt. I have thought about my daughters writing this novel,” you said about A silence full of murmursWhy do you think this happens?

– Because men were allowed everything, nor thought twice: they were the ones who made war, those who integrated the government, men have always had a very accepted public life, it is what was expected of them. In exchange for women, no. For us it was the private, domestic sphere, they put us in that little world because even if it is nice to raise our children, it is really a limited world. So if the woman goes to a revolution, for example, there was always a burden of guilt both socially imposed and the same as one was put. This book for me is very important because it is the closing of a trilogy that began with the inhabited woman and continued with The country under my skin. And this novel is about how to solve the issue of disappointment, which I think is something that we all carry in Latin America we hope that another world was possible. I had the enormous luck of living the triumph of the revolution in 79, which was a gift from life. But then we get huge disappointments because we never expect the terrible repression that was later and that has me right now, for example, in exile. Most of us abandoned Ortega when he began to betray what we considered the ideals of the revolution. I have been removed from my nationality, they have declared a traitor to the homeland, without evidence, without judgment, without the right to defense, my house, my retirement, have taken away.

– Where is that hope today?

– I think we are entering a dark stage in history with people who would never have swallowed in a past: that someone like Trump has won the elections in the United States, that Milei has won the elections in Argentina, that Ortega continues to rule in Nicaragua. I think that projects have to enter an analysis process and that we need more creativity to imagine what can come.

– How did you work to interpret Penelope’s voice, the protagonist of the story, daughter of Valeria, the revolutionary?

–I began the novel in the pandemic. I had a lot of work and Penelope captured my attention. One when he gets to make a novel he doesn’t always know what he is looking for. I knew a little that I wanted to find comfort, see how that disappointment could be managed, but at the same time I didn’t know how and I didn’t want to do it from my own story. I have always had my daughters in mind, I have had great talks with them (you can imagine that for them it was not easy) and then I thought: why not give them recognition? And not only to them, but to all the young people who lived with their parents during those processes and who had to endure pain, sufferings, isolates. It seemed good to recognize that other part of these great heroism, to put it in some way, because there is a heroism also from our children. I also wanted to testify to the pandemic because it seemed a very important moment. I didn’t want to take a preponderant place, but it was like a frame.

– A framework for loneliness?

– I thought about it as a moment when the protagonist is built within the silence, of the conciliation and finding the mother’s papers. I really like gothic novels, so I put a little mystery too.

– It is a novel in which, as your previous books, women weave networks among them to sustain and accompany themselves.

– It always bothers me when men, above all, have that speech that women are worse among us. And I think that is absolutely false, the times that I have needed support, that I have become ill, that I have been depressed, who have saved me? My friends, women. And I think women, in that sense, have an ability to understand the other that is very deep, because in addition we all live similar lives, we suffer similar things. I have traveled a lot with my novels and what surprises me is to meet women in Italy, in France, in Holland that they feel represented.

– How has your work been received in the other countries of the world, since it resulted in more than 20 languages?

– We are all limited to a geography and a story, but I think that what articulates us is human experience, not only of women, but also of men who are in the novels.

– What are you working on now?

–Ahorita I’m thinking. I’m not working in particular yet. I have several ideas, because fortunately I still have the ideas, then sometimes what I do is write 50 pages and if at 50 pages I am hooked, I think I’m going well. But I haven’t started; I have a long story that I want to see where you are going.

– What expectations do you have for the Book Fair?

– I hope to meet my readers. I have a love relationship with Argentina that starts from my readers and my readers and I have the expectation of finding my face with those people. I always give me a huge joy to be in a room where you see people reacting to what you are saying and it really is impressive. When one starts to think how lonely the trade is and how suddenly you realize the echo that your words have had, it is an impressive thing.

– Is it in those meetings where you realize how your readers have transformed with your books?

–And how reading has transformed me. I would not be who I am if I had not read the books I read.

– And what were the ones that transformed you?

– From Julio Verne, who made me open the doors of the imagination, to all the English novels, by Jane Austen, by Charlotte Brönte and after Virginia Woolf, who is my great teacher, I adore her. I was also transformed by books like The convicted of the earth, Frantz Fanon, who changed my life, Hopscotchof Cortázar, who had the enormous pleasure and privilege of knowing when I was a jury of the Casa de las Américas Award and he was a jury that same year. Julio went to Nicaragua and we became friends. He was such a good and such noble being, in addition to a great writer. I was recently in Austin, Texas, where there is one of the most important collections of manuscripts of Latin American literature and I had in my hands the manuscript of Rayuela. Borges also fascinated me, García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, Donoso: the boom was very important in my life.

– What women do you like?

–Luisa Valenzuela, Mariana Enriquez, Claudia Piñeiro, Camila Sosa Villada, Samantha Schweblin, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Fernanda Trías, Pilar Quintana, Paulina Flores, Marcela Serrano. We have tremendous writers.

– Do you think culture can be one of the current headlights?

– Yes, and women: I think we contribute a lot to see the world and literature. We have been silenced for so long … in Spain, where I am living now, I am impressed by the amount of reading clubs and they are all women: 70% of fiction books in the world are read by women. We have intelligence to appreciate the beauty of the imagination.

• He was born in Managua, Nicaragua. Winner of the Brief Library Award and the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Award for his novel The infinity in the palm of the hand (2008), she is also the author of the iconic novel The inhabited woman (1988), which won in Germany the prize of the booksellers, librarians and editors to the political novel of the year and the Anna Seghers Award of the Academy of Arts.

• Other novels of yours are Sofia of omens (1990), Waslala (1996), The parchment of seduction (2005), The Women’s Country (2010, the other shore), The intense heat of the moon (2014) y A silence full of murmurs (2024). He has also published The country under my skin (2001; 2024), his memoirs during the Sandinista period. His poetic work has received the Mariano Fialos Gil Prize in Nicaragua, the House of America in Cuba, and the Generation of 27 and Melilla City in Spain.

• In 2011 Seix Barral published poetic anthology Honey scandal. She is also the author of the trial collection Rebellions and revelations (2018) and three stories for children: The butterflies workshop (2004), The tight hug of the vine (2006) y When laughter flourished (2017).

• Awarded in 2018 with the EÑE Festival Award for all its career, with the Hermann Kesten Award for its commitment to human rights and with the Reina Sofía Award of Ibero -American Poetry in 2023, it has also received the title of Chevalier of the Arts and Letters and is president of the Pen Nicaragua. His work is translated into more than twenty languages.

Gioconda Belli will be this Saturday at the Book Fair participating at 19 of the Central America Cycle, lands at the Buenos Aires Book Fair with Luis Chaves (Costa Rica), Luis Lezama (Honduras) and Melisa Rabanales (Guatemala) in the Alfonsina Storni room. And tomorrow Sunday, at 19, he will present his new book in the Julio Cortázar room.