Those from Bilbao are born where they want
Those from Bilbao are born where they want -or The gens of Bilbao naissent où ils veulent, by its original title in French—is an autobiographical novel written by the Spanish filmmaker, actress, screenwriter and author María Larrea. The work was published for the first time in 2022 by the Grasset publishing house. Later, it was translated into Spanish by Alicia Martorell and the Alianza publishing house.
The novel hit the shelves of the Spanish-speaking public on October 19, 2023. Since then, has received mostly positive opinions from specialized critics, and mixed by the readers, obtaining a 3.7 out of 5 stars on Amazon and 3.86 out of 5 on Goodreads, resulting in a regular note that, at the same time, generates curiosity and desire to read this volume.
Synopsis of Those from Bilbao are born where they want
The two times of a life
The novel is set in two timelines that make up a complex and devastating family story. The first is about post-war Spain, the second is about 21st century Paris. Through them, the author reconstructs a personal drama about the search for identity, which occupies the center of the book's plot. This is the story about the life of María Larrea and her special family.
In particular, the writer focuses on telling the existence of Victoria and Julián, his parents, who grew up marked by terrible conditions, such as violence, exile, abandonment, loneliness, uncertainty, poverty, among other factors. However, something that characterizes these characters is the tenderness and hope they transmit despite all the suffering they have had to go through.
The beginning of the discovery of identity
Those from Bilbao are born where they want It is a novel built from memory, a love letter to Victoria and Julián. However, it is still fiction, so much of it is an almost mythological story of true events: it is a story based on real events. When María Larrea was 27 years old, she found out that the people who had raised her were not her biological parents.
Since then, He became obsessed with researching his origins in the same way he had become obsessed with researching family history. from her friends, her neighbors and her colleagues, which have led her to write scripts for films and short films. Thus, she discovered that Julián and Victoria had adopted her illegally in Bilbao, something that was very common in Spain during the dictatorship.
Three stories of abandonment, three orphaned children
This is how three lives begin in two timelines, beginning with Julián's biography., whom his prostitute mother left abandoned in front of the doors of some Jesuits in June 1943, when he was a newborn. Shortly afterwards, in Galicia, an unknown woman gave birth to little Victoria and then left her in the care of the nuns of a convent, with no origins.
For its part, María's investigation takes her from the Paris of her beginnings to Bilbao, where the traces of who were her biological parents reside, their motivations and the anecdotes of the town itself, which becomes another protagonist of the novel. The author states that she has been influenced by names such as Almodóvar, Truffaut, Manuel Vilas and Delphine de Vigan.
The legacy of the orphans
With the intention of protecting her parents from scrutiny and hasty criticism, María Larrea affirms that the inheritance they have left her is their love, which fuels her appreciation for one of his favorite phrases by Manuel Vilas for the 5th anniversary edition of Ordesa, "Memory is one of the most mysterious forms of love." Without a doubt, this is a novel written from the heart.
At the same time, his collecting data about Bilbao and remembering the various stories from her childhood have made her think that, somewhere, hidden, There is still that dark Spain that no one wants to remember. Or, at least, a glimpse of it printed on the faces of all the children abandoned and adopted in unusual ways thanks to the Franco period.
Those from Bilbao are born wherever they want is a literary novel
It might seem that “literary novel” is redundant, but no. There are countless narrative books that are not and do not pretend to be literature. But María Larrea's work has elements that fit the concept, such as the different readings it offers thanks to the chosen structures, and the small chapters with time jumps that serve to show the harsh reality of Francoist Spain.
Later, These brief sections are mixed with a more intimate narrative that takes on much closer problems.. In addition, there is a successful balance between humor and drama, as well as total control of the appearance of characters, settings and layers that are unraveled as the different anecdotes, landscapes and historical periods are assumed.
About the author
María Larrea was born on November 2, 1979, in Bilbao, Spain. After finding out that she was adopted, she discovered that her biological mother belonged to Basque high society. The certainty of her early origins allowed her to adopt a more stoic stance toward her own motherhood, which she lives through her two children. In 2002, he graduated in Cinema, and continued his training at La Fémis.
His parents moved from Bilbao to France, and there they worked polishing shoes and as theater doormen, so they didn't have much money. Nevertheless, They instilled in their daughter a love of art, which led her to work as an actress, screenwriter, director and, finally, writer. Throughout his career he has received several awards, both national and international.
Among the most important are the Audience Award for a first feature film script at the Premiers Plans festival in Angers (2018), the First Novel Award (2022), the Best Novel Award from France Télévisions and the Best Debut Novel Award awarded by Les Inrockuptibles in the First Novel category, all of which were awarded to them the same year.