Matías Néspolo
This is the best chess-as-metaphor-for-life scene I’ve ever read. You don’t have to be an avid player to feel the tension increase as the conversation parallels the battle on the board. The narrative is enriched by what the reader already knows – the subject of the conversation is not only hiding out, but is quite possibly an amnesiac or ‘merely’ delusional.
The lush setting of a remote delta island is populated by mysterious characters, each with their own agendas that operate at cross-purposes. The prose is confident and assured, clearly influenced by world literature. I would have read the entire novel, if Granta hadn’t been so generous as to include many other fine writers, all of whom are deserving of a wider audience. I eagerly await publication of The Bonfire and the Chessboard. – Chris Offutt, Best Young American Novelist 1996
Each of the Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists answered a questionnaire on their influences and the role of the writer in public life. Here are Néspolo's answers:
Name the five writers you most admire at the moment (any period, language or genre).
In ten minutes time I’d probably give you a different five with just as much conviction, and another five again in half an hour. But for now, without thinking too much about it: Roberto Arlt, César Vallejo, Franz Kafka, Mark Twain and Albert Camus.
Have you published literary criticism?
Yes, in literary magazines and cultural supplements.
Which languages do you read in?
In my mother tongue, in Catalan and, with great effort, in French. And, as a real feat, the odd poem in English. As far as other languages are concerned, I’m bordering on illiteracy.
Do you have your own web page?
No, and I currently have no plans for one. And I don’t like social networks at all.
Is your fiction your sole source of income? If not, what else do you live off?
Mainly from journalism and criticism. And, now and then, small editorial jobs or creative writing classes.
Should writers play a role in public life beyond the publication of their work? If so, in what way?
One should, but I recognise that Sartrean commitment is not experiencing its finest hour. Nor is it imperative for a fiction author to write opinion columns in the media, publish essays and/or non-fiction or bring about public interventions, but if he or she does, so much the better. In any case, I think that all fiction is political and to write fiction is without doubt an intervention in "public affairs", whether or not the author likes it or is conscious of it.