An advisor to the Ja! Festival of Literature and Art with Humor, the Bilbao native has published ‘El pensamiento vuelve a la sangre’, a novel about the deep friendship he maintained with his colleague Fernando Marías, who died three years ago.
a novel about the deep friendship he maintained with his colleague Fernando Marías, who died three years ago.
Three days before his death on February 5th, 2022, writer and screenwriter Fernando Marías (Bilbao, 1958-2022) sent a WhatsApp message to his childhood friend Juan Bas: ‘El pensamiento vuelve a la sangre’.
It was a moment of lucidity during his last moments of life. I interpreted that message as a poetic idea, because his blood was more alive and his thoughts traveled through it, says Bas, a 65-year-old Bilbao native, writer, and creator of the Ja! International Festival of Literature and Art with Humor.
‘El pensamiento vuelve a la sangre’ (Thought Returns to Blood) (Reino de Cordelia) is the title of his latest book, which he conceived as an elegy to his great companion in hardship: 'When I decided I was going to write this book, I was sure it would be titled that way. It's a non-fiction novel that narrates the more than 50 years of friendship between the two'.
