FICTION
by Pérez-Reverte, this one set among the drug cartels of Mexico and the
Yakuza of Japan.
We caught up with Pérez-Reverte to ask him a few questions about
the book, social media, and television adaptations of his work.
As perhaps the most popular writer in the world, what is your
key message to readers in this age of social media, the internet,
and Instagram? There is no key message. I’m a professional teller of
stories, and my readers read them. The means by which these stories
reach my readers has changed due to circumstance and over time, but
the stories remain the same. Social networks have the advantage of
putting them into wider circulation, reaching people who don’t go to
bookstores. That’s about it.With Queen of the South streaming on television in the U.S.
and with two different adaptations, do you find your work is
read differently in translation—both into English and in the
sense that it has now been “translated” into film? As a medium,
literature is destined for a specific audience, while film and television
are destined for another. [Screen] adaptations are made by professionals
who know both their industry and their audience. It has nothing to do
with me. I can’t take credit for the results—good or bad—of the film
and television versions of my work. The benefit is that they allow my
stories to reach a wider audience that, in many cases, doesn’t read. You
could say that my stories are being retold by others.
It’s always interesting to see what has been done with
them, regardless of whether the results appeal to me.What is your reflection on the differences be-
tween American, Latin American, and Spanish
readers? Do you find they are attracted to
different aspects of your stories or books? If
so, how? I don’t believe there are specific differenc-
es between these groups of readers. At least, I haven’t
ever noticed any.You have been vocal about your political and so-
cial views about contemporary society, yet you
have set many of your most popular books in
the past. How do these two eras interact in your
imagination? What lessons have you learned
from your reading of history, and reimagining
of it, that you’d like to pass along to the next generation?
I don’t hope to pass on anything to the next generation, not
least because a novelist has no moral, ethical, social, or educa-
tional obligations, or whatever you’d like to call them. In this
sense, [a novelist] is free to have political and social views, or
not. As far as I’m concerned, my only obligation is to tell good
stories in a way that’s both professional and moving; the reader
can draw his or her own conclusions. With regard to the past,
writing about it is a good way to better understand the present.
As one of my characters says, “We are what we are because we
were what we were.”Finally, is there something I have not asked that you would like
me to? If so, please ask and answer it. On the contrary, I thank
you for your questions—especially the ones you haven’t asked. When
all is said and done, the best way to get to know a novelist is to read his
writing, not what he says.A MEETING WITH ARTURO PÉREZ-REVERTE
Sunday, Nov. 23, 6.30 p.m.
Building 3, Chapman24 MIAMI BOOK FAIR
A
rturo Pérez-Reverte inspires conversation wherever
he goes. In Spain, he’s been touring in support of
his new novel, Sidi, a reimagining of the life and
times of El Cid, an 11th-century soldier and one of the
most famous figures in Spanish history. He’s called his nov-
el, which challenges many preconceptions about the man as
a hero and conqueror, “the work of a lifetime.”
Historical fiction has long been Pérez-Reverte’s milieu.
In the United States, he was first published in translation
with The Fencing Master (1988), which was followed by The
Flanders Panel (1990) and The Club Dumas (2002). But it was
his Captain Alatriste series, which kicked off in 1996, that truly catapulted
Pérez-Reverte into worldwide fame.
The author, who has sold more than 20 million books worldwide,
has also seen success on the small screen. The Queen of the South, his
2002 novel about a Mexican woman who goes on the run to Morocco
and subsequently forges a career as an international drug doyenne,
has been adapted into two different television series, one in English
for the USA Network and another in Spanish for Telemundo. And in
September, Univision unveiled El Dragón, another telenovela penned
BY ED NAWOTKA
TRANSLATION FROM
THE SPANISH BY
SAMANTHA SCHNEE
Bestselling author Arturo Pérez-Reverte
discusses his new novel, adapting his
work for television, and why you should
read his books, not his author interviewsWriting
the Past to
Understand
the Present
CARMELO RUBIO