Outlaws by Javier Cercas

Author:Javier Cercas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2014-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 2

‘Let me make one thing clear from the start. I don’t like talking to journalists, I don’t like talking about Antonio Gamallo, and what I like least of all is talking to journalists about Antonio Gamallo; in fact, this is the first time I’ve spoken of the matter with a journalist.’

‘I’m not a journalist.’

‘Aren’t you writing a book about Zarco?’

‘Yes, but . . .’

‘Then it’s as if you were a journalist. I’ll tell you the truth: I wouldn’t have agreed to talk to you if it hadn’t been the daughter of a good friend of mine who asked me to, and because she promised my name would not appear in the book. I understand you’ll respect that promise.’

‘Of course.’

‘Don’t be offended: I don’t have anything against you personally; but I do have quite a bit against journalists. They’re a bunch of tricksters. They make things up. They lie. And, since they tell lies disguised as truths, people live in tremendous confusion. You take what they did to Gamallo, to Gamallo’s wife, to Ignacio Cañas; journalism is a meat-grinder: everyone gets crushed, and they’ll crush everything you put in front of them. They get nothing from me. Well. Now that we’ve got that clear, I’m at your disposal, although I have to warn you I spoke very little with Gamallo. There are lots of people who knew him much better than I did. By the way, have you already spoken with his wife?’

‘María Vela? She charges for interviews. Besides, everyone already knows her version, she’s told it a thousand times.’

‘True. And the other woman? Have you talked to her?’

‘You mean Tere?’

‘Yes. She could tell you lots of things; they say she’s known Gamallo all her life.’

‘I know. But she’s dead. She died a couple of weeks ago, near here, in Font de la Pòlvora.’

‘Ah.’

‘Did you know her?’

‘By sight.’

‘Look, I understand your reservations. I understand that you don’t want to make statements to the press. And that you don’t like talking about Zarco. But, as I said, I’m not a journalist, I don’t work for a radio or television station or write in a newspaper, and I’m not even sure I’m going to write about Zarco.’

‘You’re not?’

‘No. That was the idea at first, yes: to write a book about Zarco that denounced all the lies that have been told about him and tell the truth or a portion of the truth. But a person doesn’t write the books he wants to write, but those he can or those he finds, and the book I’ve found both is and isn’t that one.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I don’t know yet. I’ll know when I finish writing it. At the moment all I know is that the book will be about Zarco, of course, but also about Zarco’s relationship with Ignacio Cañas, or about Zarco’s relationship with Ignacio Cañas and with Tere, or about Ignacio Cañas’ relationship with Tere and with Zarco. Anyhow: as I said I still have to find that out.’

‘I didn’t have anything to do with the girl, but I had more to do with Cañas than with Gamallo.

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