Dolores Redondo, winner of the 2016 Planeta Award. © La Portada Mex.
After selling over 700 copies of her Baztán trilogy , Dolores Redondo (San Sebastián, 1969) replaces matriarchies with patriarchies, Navarre with Galicia, and a more familiar magic with one steeped in taboos from Galician lands. The novel, winner of the 2016 Planeta Prize, is called *Todo esto te daré* (All This I Will Give You) and is a work about “impunity and greed,” in Redondo's own words.
Dolores Redondo: "In Galicia there are sanctuaries where people go to rid themselves of the devil"
Dolores Redondo walks through the Press Room of the Fairmont Juan Carlos I hotel in Barcelona happily tired, with a glass of Coca Cola with which she tries to alleviate the lack of sleep and the flashes of the bubble in which she has been plunged for fourteen hours.
According to his words at the press conference, All this I will give you, the work camouflaged under the pseudonym Sol de Tebas and winner of the 2016 Planeta Prize, is a crime novel about impunity and greed set in the mysterious lands of the Galician Ribeira Sacra . A story that begins with the identification in Lugo of Álvaro's corpse by her husband, Manuel, who begins to discover little by little the double life of his partner thanks to the help of a priest and a retired civil guard.
Current Literature: How are you feeling?
Dolores Redondo: (laughs) I don't know, weird, I'm happy. I still have the feeling of not having landed that I need a moment of privacy and solitude to analyze everything that has happened to me.
AL: And rest...
DR: Yes, but more than resting and saying "this is over." Because it's still happening.
AL: Perhaps when time passes and you remember this day, you won't do so clearly.
DR: (Laughs) Absolutely!
AL: Tell me about All This I Will Give You: how is it different from everything you have written before?
DR: First of all, I'm no longer the person who wrote the other novels. They were all conceived from a different perspective, that of someone who wasn't a professional writer, at least not with * The Invisible Guardian*. Obviously, those works have left a mark that the reader notices. Then there's also a conscious intention to do things differently. The first, most obvious, approach lies in the fact that in the Baztán trilogy, women and a matriarchal society reigned supreme, but this time I've gone to the other extreme, to the other side of the country, to a different landscape with completely different customs and way of life; a total patriarchy heavily influenced by Catholicism.
AL: In fact, the protagonists of this novel are men.
DR: Yes, they are three very different men, completely at odds with each other, united by a common search for the truth. A small friendship gradually develops until it compels them to a commitment that compels them to continue together in their search for the truth.
AL: You mentioned that the setting, in this case the Galician Ribeira Sacra, was especially important, as it was a character in itself. Which place in that region has been the most inspiring for you?
DR: I really like a place called Belesar, a river port on the Sil River. I love traveling along the river by boat, admiring all those vineyards as they reach the riverbank. It's spectacular, inspiring. Knowing what's there, that there are seven submerged villages underwater and the people had to move further upstream.
AL: Just like in the Baztán trilogy there is still magic, but in this case it is different.
DR: Yes. As with Baztán, in Navarre, I thought it was interesting to talk about more magical aspects because I felt they were being lost and had only been recounted from an anthropological point of view. The everyday use of those legends had been lost.
However, in Galicia the effect is the opposite, because Galicia is always closely linked to the meigas, to the healers, to all those topics that I have fled and that I have decided not to include. The Ribeira Sacra has the highest concentration of churches, convents and Romanesque art in all of Europe. Catholicism and the way in which people live in the area entails a different relationship between the Catholic Church and the people and there are certain practices that do not occur elsewhere in the country and that are still preserved. Unlike the magic of Baztán, this one is very shocking and striking. These are beliefs that are part of everyday faith and belief. In several places in Galicia there are several sanctuaries and one of the priests of the novel is in one of them. People come to him to get rid of the devil. I have been there, that exists and is done daily. People come when they suspect that they have suffered a spiritual attack and there is a priest who, without any fault, agrees to heal them. I don't know what the priest of my church would say if I am going to ask him to remove the devil from me (laughs). But there it exists, it is common, and it is part of everyday life. It cannot be called magic, it would be disrespectful, it is a very striking way of living the faith that leaves very dark margins so that things can happen that may not have a logical explanation.
AL: It's a taboo.
DR: Exactly!
AL: And you don't know what to explain.
DR: Exactly, what are you explaining there? You have to accept, with all due respect, that there are people who go there and that these things happen completely normally.
Río Sil, the place that inspired All this I'll give you, by Dolores Redondo.
AL: What advice would you give to someone who wants to apply for the Planeta Prize?
DR: I would advise against doing what I did the first time and wait until you have a better novel. You always have to aim for a better novel. Especially if it's your first one—believe me, you can write something better. Just by rewriting it, you'll see the difference because you've already learned, you've written a novel. Think about it: in the publishing world, even though we often find very repetitive things, if what you truly desire is great success, you have to look for something new; they're always looking for something different. If you settle for being an imitator or repeating clichés, you won't get very far, and you usually only get one chance to make a first impression. If, when you have the novel, you admit you can do better, don't submit it yet.
AL: What are you going to do with the prize?
DR: Half for Montoro, of course (laughs). And then, like many people in this country, I have two elderly parents who live on a limited pension and two unemployed brothers... I'm the eldest sister, so helping out is normal for me (laughs).
"Todo esto de daré" by Dolores Redondo was the winning work of the 2016 Planeta Prize and we hope to be able to read it in Actualidad Literatura during the next few weeks.
Have you read Redondo's work?