Vicente Puchol
Vicente Puchol
It was my lot to live during Franco's regime, and as a result I opted for a social position that would free me from every possible kind of servitude. To reach my goal, I was obliged to slog through many years of study in order to become a notary, which in my country is a highly qualified and prestigious specialization within the field of law. It brought with it total autonomy, as my responsibility was to carry out the law and to make certain that others carried it out as well.

 

The career of notary is not the same in Anglo-Saxon countries as it is in Spain. In Spain a notary is responsible for drafting and witnessing contracts, assuring that both parties understand the terms of the contract, and that the terms of the contracts do not break any laws. As such, the notary is the guarantor of private judicial security. As the notary, I was in the privileged position of being able to develop a deep understanding of the many conflicts of interest that human beings are subject to and the legal context in which they are so often framed. When I was a practicing notary, I made good use of my free time to read as much as I liked, without restrictions. Later, and when I least expected it, the floodgates opened and all of the literary energy that I had stored up over the years spilled out into my first novel.

 

My readers convinced me that I was a writer, and I gave myself fully to literature. At the same time, I came to know the greatest writers of the age, who honored me with their friendship and esteem. Thus, Vicente Aleixandre (Nobel Prize winner for literature), Carlos Bousoño and Claudio Rodríguez, (both Prince of Asturias Prize winners), José Hierro and Franciso Brines (Cervantes Prize winners), Francisco Nieva, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, and others, became my friends. They all, but especially Vicente Aleixandre and Carlos Bousoño, encouraged me to share my literary work with the English-speaking world.

 

During my retirement, I have revised my novels making them more accessible and clarifying certain obscure points, so that the reader can glide through them without the slightest hesitation. This must surely be the ideal of all authors, although I cannot say that I myself have hit the mark cleanly.

Lost Characters by Vicente Puchol

Coming Soon: Lost Characters (translated by Robin Longshaw)

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