Our Own

Mystery and suspense novel

Synopsis

Barbari sleeps a dark sleep. It's a village nestled among mountains of deep forest, where time dances at the mercy of an unpredictable natural world. Its people are rugged, brave, sincere, and loyal, but above all, they are accustomed to living in seclusion and jealously guarding their secrets. When trouble arises, they retreat, whispering stories and fears around the fire, as a family.

That's why, when the new assistant priest, Martín de Aristizabal, arrives, they are suspicious.

Don't see, don't know.

Ah, but the youngest girls are disappearing, a strange creature prowls the streets and sneaks into the farmhouses. Ah, neither protections nor rituals work anymore, home isn't enough to keep evil at bay at night, that evil creeps into dreams and paralyzes bodies, leaving marks on the floors, unfamiliar footprints, and a horrendous stench of death… It's coming, it's coming!

Martín takes his first steps in this difficult, hostile, poisoned environment. All the faith and optimism that form the basis of his strength seem to fade when everything that happens before his eyes moves away from the rational and plunges him headlong into the supernatural.

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How did this story begin?

Embarking on this project has been a tortuous and arduous process. "Our Love" has navigated an ocean entirely embraced and conditioned by emotion; a surge from the depths of my being, from the visceral, from the earthquake of experiencing not one, but four losses in a short period. It took me three years to write it, a long journey for me.

Initially, it was going to be called "The Iron Mountain," since the story was to be set in Zerain—a town in Goierri (Gipuzkoa) whose past is closely linked to mining—and the place where the iron was extracted was called that. In fact, I did quite a bit of research on it, as well as on how such hard work affected the daily lives of people in the early 1800s, how it shaped their thinking and their worldview, within the context of people accustomed to living a life divided between the farmhouse and working in the mine. I even took a guided tour of the mine that's still open to the public and soaked it all up.

I thought that was going to be my story.

How easy it is for me.

I quickly hit a wall when I realized that if I continued down that path, I was going to have to write a third eco-thriller, like The Messenger of the Forest or A Desert of Ice. That's what was being asked of me; they told me the mine offered a lot of material in that sense: the contamination of the land, the transition from forest to ice and now to land. I didn't want to repeat myself. My story was going in a very different direction. It delves into the depths of the fear of the unknown, it speaks of a relationship with the natural world on a more mythological level. In the end, I removed that part of the project (the mining) and decided, to remain true to reality, to set the book in a fictional place, albeit one inspired by Zerain. Barbari, in fact, makes reference to a neighborhood in that town.

The problems didn't end there.

Decisiones difíciles

My own emotional state made me doubt myself countless times, questioning every step of the way. There was a wild, rage-filled, violent version of myself, a response to the pain I was going through, the wound I carried inside and didn't know how to rid myself of. Then it became very sad, completely overshadowed by the macabre and melancholic cloak that accompanies the loss of a loved one. Realizing all of this wasn't easy; it required an enormous effort on my part to distance myself, to overcome myself and my circumstances in order to redirect the project and prevent it from spiraling out of control, from losing the essence I wanted to convey: to talk about superstitions, about deeply rooted beliefs, about family as a protective nucleus, about the sense of belonging.

"Our Own" is an intimate and immersive book that looks inward, introverted, shy, and voracious all at once.

My other challenge was writing something that, while having thriller elements, wasn't actually a thriller. Everything I've written so far is a thriller, with a faster pace, a different rhythm, and a different intention. I was very afraid of straying so far from my essence, of presenting this story in a deeper, more personal way. Besides, the tone from the beginning has been musical, like a dance that gently sways you and sets the rhythm. It's like listening to the story by the fire, without rushing, even though what's being told moves you and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I was also asked to break with the magic that surrounds the book, and it was suggested that there be a single protagonist. All of that went against what I was doing, against the most authentic foundation upon which the entire plot rests.

Writing «Our Own» has meant going against the grain. At one point, I had to take a bold step and accept that I had to preserve the story as I felt it, so as not to betray myself, to be honest with that voice that has been guiding me all along, since I wrote the first line.

Because there are moments in life when you have to defend your voice, believe in it above all else, and speak the truth, the truth that comes from the heart. Beyond whether it's a thriller or not, beyond any aspirations to reach a wider audience, this novel longs to touch the heart and whisper in your ear. To move, to connect, to understand, to accompany, to stir emotions, and to dance. All of that is «Our Own», and a little more. It's about a battered character who washes ashore full of wounds and carrying a unique experience; someone with so much to say and eager to be heard.

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