The Malaga-born author, who has just published his eighth novel ‘El susurro del fuego,’ started out self-publishing and is now a success with each of his books, even though he never thought it would be possible.
The last time I interviewed Javier Castillo (Mijas, Malaga, 1987) was just over five years ago, only a few days before the state of emergency was declared due to the COVID-19 health crisis. At that time, in the historic and fateful March 2020, the writer was already a literary star with four novels published, selling more than half a million copies—615,000, to be exact—without the backing of critics or traditional media.
At that time, despite being an author who attracted thousands of people to his book signings and had accumulated more than 300,000 followers on social media, Javier Castillo still went to the public library in Fuengirola every day to write his books, where he surrounded himself with civil service exam candidates and students with whom he socialized.
The novel he had just published that year, ‘La chica de nieve’ (The Snow Girl), became the most read book in Spain during lockdown and was soon adapted for television, becoming the most watched series worldwide when it premiered on Netflix.
