Don't You Dare To Think Out Loud!

Yesterday, I had a lovely spring morning. I had to take care of some paperwork in Barcelona, which left me at the doorstep of my favorite bookstore, La Central del Raval. I hope it will remain open for many more years. I recommend its patio for quiet reading, although I don’t like the self-service and the long queue for those who are undecided about which cake to choose.

When I returned to my studio, the rain blessed me again with its music. But the new cause célèbre in the publishing industry truly irked me. I couldn't resist sharing my thoughts with the people I trust. Go to court and get an order to halt the publication of a book? It certainly was paradoxical for me, a firm defender of freedom of speech and of using all the words in the dictionary while writing without prejudice. That's what this literary podcast is about.

In 2011, José Bretón, a spiteful and deranged father, reacted violently to his wife Ruth Ortiz’s announcement of their divorce. This led him to make a heinous decision to commit double filicide, killing his six-year-old daughter Ruth and his two-year-old son José. He first gave them pills and then put them at the stake using 551 lbs of firewood and 176 lbs of gas oil. Although his criminal goal wasn’t to kill his wife, it was to inflict unbearable emotional trauma on her. This act of vicarious violence is a form of gender-based violence that targets women.

The police finally confirmed, after firing an incompetent forensic, that they had found the charred bones of the children on Breton’s family farm. While he kept denying the proven facts and presenting himself as an exemplary father. A psychiatrist who examined him diagnosed that he did not suffer from any mental disorder. Consequently, the justice sentenced Bretón to 40 years in prison.

That being said, and as a note of clarification for my American audience, Bretón's murder trial was followed by the press and broadcasted daily, and helped a lot to pass a bill to defend vicarious violence against women in Spain, perpetrated by abusive men during centuries in many forms. The goal was always to hamper the will and the rights of women.

However, José Bretón still intends to perpetuate vicarious violence against his ex-partner, admitting now the crime that has already been thoroughly proven to the author Luisgé Martín, an award-winning novelist, who has written in various genres. Martín is also known for ghostwriting the political memoirs and speeches of the renowned tightrope walker, who is currently the President of the Government of Spain.

Ruth Ortiz, determined to rebuild her life, sought the court’s intervention to stop the distribution and sale of the book titled “El Odio” –meaning Hate–to the publisher Anagrama. She described the author, Luisgé Martín, as “the devil’s pen” for perpetuating José Breton’s vicarious violence against her. Notably, the author had failed to even attempt to contact her before, seemingly indifferent to her pain and the fact that she was the victim.

Indeed, it was Luisgé Martín who initiated a correspondence exclusively with the filicide, who was enthusiastic about the entire concept, offering an opportunity to share his perspective on the events.

There are those who attempt to draw parallels between Truman Capote’s renowned In Cold Blood and Luisgé Martín’s Hate. Emmanuel Carrère’s The Adversary is also mentioned in this context.

While I haven’t read Carrère’s work, I think Truman Capote didn’t face any backlash or criticism during his time. Furthermore, the motive of the murderers Richard Hickock and Perry Smith was purely economic.

The judge says that without knowing the content of the book, he cannot rule to halt its publication. And the prosecutor has appealed and demanded that the publishing house Anagrama hand over the manuscript galleys to the court.

The founder of Anagrama, Jorge Herralde, during the decades of the 80s and 90s, sold the new batch of young British authors such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Julian Barnes, Martin Amis, Hanif Kureishi, Ian McEwan, and Graham Swift... My library had a predominant yellow color, the color chosen for the paperback collection.

All things pass, and nothing remains. Herralde sold his shares to the Italian publisher Feltrinelli in 2010 when he retired, as he declared, "to preserve the continuity of the publishing house." Geez! Jorge, what have you done? Nobody could do a better job than you, the same who published a dark horse like Roberto Bolaño!

The last time I saw Jorge Herralde was when my mother-in-law was dying in a hospital in the upper part of Barcelona, and I ended up having dinner one August evening in the courtyard of El Trapío with my wife. I wanted to show my respects, but good manners and discretion only allowed me to whisper to Melissa how much good Herralde did in his heyday. And the time I submitted one of my novels to the literary prize that bears his name–short in economic endowment but with an abundant reputation–in the tiny apartment Anagrama had as an office, when I thought about something more corporate.

That being said, the paradox within the paradox. Like a Russian doll. In the near future, once Ruth Ortiz passes away, I don’t see any reason to prevent Anagrama from publishing the book, provided it still deems it appropriate. However, it’s simply unfortunate timing at this moment.

If you ask me, I shall pass on this one without the slightest doubt. As I do always with any biased recollection of the facts. Because it's an insult to the intelligence. At the end, whatever one does to control the narrative, truth effortlessly floats on the water like an oil slick.

According to McLuhan, the medium is the message. The issue lies not only in what the book says or how it is written, but in the book itself, its very conception: to put on sale the never-before-seen version of the filicide. But, alas, in front of the shattered mirror of a mother who only sought silence.