Spanish poet, writer and translator Marta López-Luaces published her latest book “Los traductores del viento” (Wind translators). The novel reveals the deepest human conflicts intertwined with the social fabric, dealing also with the historical struggle for power between the church and the secular establishment representatives.
In the city of Enoch, built in the desert to house ex-offenders and illegal immigrants, Augustine, curator of the library, is involved in a plot that leads him to face the authorities. Matthew, his teacher at the orphanage where he grew up, belongs to a religious sect that believes in the existence of a translator capable of deciphering the language that maintains communication between humans and God alive. This involves finding Augustine's next disciple who shall maintain a dialogue with the divine.
The author Marta López-Luaces wants to reveal the deepest human conflicts intertwined with the social fabric. This novel is also about the historical struggle for power between the church and the secular establishment representatives.
ARS: ¿How would you define your novel Los traductores del viento (The Translators of the Wind)?
Marta López Luaces: It is difficult for me to define my own novel, but in Spain several critics have defined it as a science fiction /mystical novel. Yet I think it is a novel that deals with human and social issues of today like diversity, religion and poverty, although the novel takes place in the 23rd century.
ARS: Augustine, the main character, is not involved in the power struggles of the city and yet he will be their victim ¿Can you explain that?
Marta López Luaces: The struggle between the economic, political and religious power in Enoch affects the inner life of the characters. Augustine feels powerless, and without control over of his life.
ARS: ¿Why did you place your story at a city like Enoch, built in the desert?
Marta López Luaces: Enoch refers to the city built by Cain. The first known criminal was also the founder of the first city, at least in the Bible. The name and the geography influence the characters of the novel. I wanted to show their total isolation. The Bible references and the geography of the desert create this sense of oblivion. It is part of the characters’ inner conflicts. They fight their sense of loneliness while they also try to figure out how to escape from Enoch and the surrounding desert.
