Julieta Prandi was always linked to letters. On several occasions she said that it was her grandmother who told her that she should never stop writing. And that’s what she did. On Sunday the 28th she will present “I would have to be dead” at the 2024 Book Fair, a novel based on real events.
In dialogue with TN Show, he told how he prepares for the presentation, reflected on the writing process and its healing power and advanced some of his projects. Additionally, he talked about her relationship with Emanuel Ortega, who played a key role in his “reconstruction.”
Julieta Prandi presents “I would have to be dead”: “I understand the protagonist because I was once in that skin”
“I should be dead” was the phrase that Julieta Prandi said to Marcela Citterio, the owner of the publishing house that publishes it today. In this regard, he recalled: “We met to discuss some issues in the book and talking about the background and a little about my life, I told him ‘I should be dead and I’m not because of you and because many people know me, know who I am.’ Otherwise, surely, I wouldn’t have been able to get out.’”
After years of silence, Julieta began to speak and she did so with all her strength. Putting it down on paper was also part of the process and a form of healing: “I think that whoever writes, he does so from the need to communicate something. It is very powerful to tell a story that is based on real events, where of course I understand Lucía, the protagonist, because I was once in that shoes.”
“But it is not only based on real events due to something that I have experienced, but also on the stories of so many women who went through the same thing. It is an issue that affects many of us. It’s a responsibility, but it was very liberating to write this story. It was like letting go of a backpack that had to be opened and had to come out,” she said.
Beyond some similarities, Julieta clarified that it is not an autobiographical work. “It’s fiction. Lucía is a journalist from Pergamino, who dreamed of coming to Buenos Aires to succeed and who is working hard to make that happen. In a moment of personal fragility, but of great work success, she meets Fermín and finds herself immersed in a gruesome, perverse and dark story in which she sees no way out,” she said about the plot.
Asked about the creative process with a topic that touches her so closely, Julieta admitted: “I devoted myself to writing this book, facing the pain and anguish that remembering certain situations and imagining others could cause me.” “The process is very hard and strong, but when I finished it, in addition to enormous gratification, I felt that in some way it had stopped belonging to me. It’s like when musicians say that the songs are no longer theirs. I feel that this novel is awakening and now belongs to the one who needs it,” she highlighted.
In this sense, she commented that “it is already serving”: “Beyond thanking me, many tell me that they feel like they are looking in a mirror. It is very hard to encounter that because you always think that there are things that only happen to you, but for some people who understand what it is like to go through violence and have been with a psychopath, reading and feeling identified is as if you were speaking for them.” .
“I would have to be dead”, a book that promises and could have a second part
In 2005, Marcela Citterio, the screenwriter of Amor en custodia (Telefe), asked that Julieta Prandi play the role of Bárbara. The model agreed, but after a few rehearsals, she couldn’t continue. “I started working there and I was in a situation very similar to what happened to Lucía (the protagonist of the book) later, that’s why I couldn’t continue. It was crazy that he contacted me after so many years to tell me this story. Obviously, we were meant to create this together and I am very happy with her and the entire team,” she highlighted.
The characteristic of The Orlando Books is that it articulates writing and audiovisuals. Asked about the future of this book, Julieta pointed out that “it is designed in series format”: “The vast majority of the chapters are short and one appears in the present and the other in the past.” In this regard, she explained: “That’s good because it allows you to spy on who that person was before, see his origins and understand his vulnerability. Lucía, for example, has her Achilles heel and Fermín, who is the person she is in a relationship with, knows how to use those scars to manipulate her as she pleases. But it is necessary for the reader to understand where Lucía is coming from to know why certain things hurt her more than others.”
Regarding her role as a writer, Prandi was expectant: “I hope it does so well that a second part comes. In principle, the story as far as I wrote it asks for one more, we will see if I continue or not. I already started writing. It is something that I have always been passionate about and I don’t see myself abandoning letters now.”
