We all knew the book well because it's the cult book in Latin America. For me, this was a sacred territory. I would not have ventured into it by myself.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When that book came out, it was like Columbus telling about America at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella.
I do feel fortunate to have some knowledge of the great Latin American writers, including some that are probably not that well known in English. I'm thinking of Jose Maria Arguedas, whom I read when I was living in Lima, and who really impacted the way I viewed my country.
I had to do the book because there was an unauthorised biography which didn't tell it like it was.
I don't think that books are wondrous, magical things that come from nowhere. It's important that a book has clues about where and how it was written.
I think 'The Lord Of The Rings' is the mother of all cult books, because you can be in that cult and not even know you're in it.
Religion obviously played a role in this book and the previous book, too.
I didn't go to Latin America thinking, 'I'm gonna write a book. This is what I'm gonna do.' I went there to work for UNICEF and to learn.
The book is openly a kind of spiritual autobiography, but the trick is that on any other level it's a kind of insane collage of fragments of memory.
Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.
The first time I remember really being excited about a book was 'The Count of Monte Cristo.'
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