Cristina del Puerto-Pez: "In small towns, there isn't just one lesbian."

BarcelonaCristina Del Puerto-Pez (Manlleu, 2000) shares three things with Elisenda, the protagonist of her first novel, Women without men (Empúries): both are lesbians, they are fascinated by it Haruki Murakami and know how to use an axe. From then on, the entire story of this woman, blocked by her sexual identity and gripped by the pain of losing her mother, is fiction. "I needed to write about love and mourning to understand them, but I was interested in creating someone far removed from myself. I didn't want to be asked if I was the protagonist. One day, while running, I suddenly visualized Elisenda, this woman who was a little depressed but also very Puerto," she and I finally told each other.

She is 24 years old and belongs to the generation centennial, while the protagonist was born in the late 1970s and her story spans from adolescence to adulthood, a turbulent emotional journey. Sexuality and difficulties in accepting oneself mean that, despite her efforts to live a life like any other, everything goes against her. Maria Aurèlia Capmany and Maria Mercè Marçal. At the same time, she has to live in a strange context: when she's a teenager, same-sex marriage is already legal, but it's also all very secret," says the author, who sets the story in a small town in Moianès. grandfather and spends many hours with Anna, her friend. She will be his first love, and it will be reciprocated. There are more than one, it's just that we don't want to see it. I also wanted them to have their own love story, in the same way that we've all had teenage love," emphasizes Del Puerto-Pez. has slept with a man.

"My main idea was to show a lesbian who could fall in love, fall out of love, get married, and get divorced. If we conquer same-sex marriage, we must also conquer divorce. The protagonist must be able to have all these experiences like anyone else," notes Del Puerto-Pez. In fact, this desire connects with her view of character-driven literature queer. "So far, all fiction queer It used to focus on coming out. Now we've gone a step further. We have to explain that we have a life beyond. That's why I like books aboutEva Baltasar, because it speaks to universal things with the simple fact that the protagonists are lesbians. Now it's time to write a lot of literature in this vein; it's the most natural way to normalize it," she says.

The fascination with Haruki Murakami

Women without men It's full of nods to the literature of Haruki Murakami. Elisenda herself is a tenacious follower, but not only that: suddenly, a mysterious cat appears in her life and leads her to a dreamlike place where she confronts her pain. "I'm aware of all the criticisms of Murakami's work, but he's a writer who fascinates me. When I haven't read him for a while, I miss him. He always challenges me; his books force me to think," explains the author. She plays with elements of magical realism to guide the novel toward ambiguity and doubt. Where does all this buried pain that drags Elisenda down come from? Can traumas be inherited? And, above all, what can be done to remedy it? The answer to all this lies only with the protagonist herself and a ghostly Japanese writer who offers her a hand to delve into the darkness and, thus, find a way out toward self-love.