Abyss

When I was a young writer, Bogotá was ‘Capital Mundial del Libro’ or World Book Capital and I was invited by Hay Festival to be part of a group called Bogotá39. We were 39 writers under the age of 39. They wanted to say, ‘Here are some promising young writers.’ They asked me, ‘What’s your literature about? And I said, ‘I have no idea! I’ve only written two books.’ But what we all seemed to have in common was that we were from big cities, not from the countryside, so they said we were writing urban literature. So I was convinced that that’s what I was writing. But then my books became more and more about the jungle. My third book was set in a huge building complex, but most of the action in the novel took place in a small jungle on top of one of the buildings. My literature started having more and more nature in it. Like in The Bitch or in Abyss, which is coming out now. I think it was a myth that my generation was writing books about cities that happened only in cities, because it’s not only me, but many other writers are writing books that happen in the Colombian countryside, in the mountains, on the beaches, in the jungle, on farms.

 

I don’t enjoy writing [Abyss]. I enjoy when I finish writing. It’s like running a marathon—I’ve run a half marathon—I enjoy it when I’m finished and when they give me my medal. I enjoy my books when they’re out there, when I can say ‘Oof I’ve finished, I don’t have to deal with this book anymore.’ I also enjoy planning a book. But the actual working on it every day and trying to get the sentences out? It’s a long and difficult process for me.

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