Javier Cercas

Conversations with Bruno Arpaia, Sergio del Molino and Félix de Azúa.

Adventure often leads us, much like passion, to explore territories whose mechanisms and mysteries we are not certain we understand. This is even more true when the adventurer ventures—often unwittingly—into the fascinating but slippery terrain of literary creation. So, what does it mean to write novels? What must one know before embarking on the tortuous journey of crafting a narrative text? This book reveals some of the rules and tricks behind the craft of writing. The conversations within can be summarized by the idea that the novel has an “almost infinite capacity to absorb everything it can, to cannibalize, as needed, poetry, philosophy, journalism, essays, history...” and that in committing to the adventure of writing them, there is a “moral reason,” because in undertaking the adventure of writing, “we have an obligation to be equidistant,” though we must also remember that “in life, sooner or later, you have to stop being so.”