The extraordinary of an ordinary life

With a light plot consisting of minimal and everyday episodes, English notebookthe novel that won the prize 28th edition of the Clarín Prizebrings to the stage a lonely character whose only passion is reading and who makes a living from low-skilled jobs. He goes to London to learn English and find an incentive to move. But although he tries to convince himself that he is happy with his new job as a geriatric nurse, he is sometimes overcome by concern about the scarcity of his resources and the suspicion that he is wasting his life.

Carlos’ simple routine, the tiny events he experiences are analyzed in detail, as are his readings that illuminate every reflection. One day, an unusual event – a fly invasion in his kitchen – leads him to write down what happened in a notebook he bought to record his impressions of London. The story expands until it becomes the novel we are reading. With an effective, unconventional beginning and moments full of humor, English notebook manages to portray the inner complexity of its protagonist in a flawless story with discreet simplicity and contemporary spirit.

Do you know your author, Daniel Morales Pereafrom Málaga, 42 years old, lives in London, allows us to discover some similarities with his character, with whom he shares a love of literature, although the character of Carlos, an avid reader, is not dedicated to writing. As he said after receiving the prize from the hands of the jury that composed it Javier Cercas, Mariana Enriquez and Alberto FuguetMorales leads a low-cost lifestyle, guided by the decision to devote his time to writing.

Instead of paying rent, you solve the need for living space thanks House sitting: He looks after the homes of people who are away for long periods of time, like a retired English couple who leave him in charge of their home on Bromley Common (where the novel is set) in the winter in order to travel, oh, coincidence, to their summer home in Córdoba, Argentina.

–Without severity, English notebook He succeeds in captivating the reader with an empathetic narrative voice that steers clear of irony and ridicule. What did you think of this tone?

– A precursor to this novel is a book of narrative essays in which I discovered my voice. I don’t like social media, but on the advice of my editors, I started writing about books I read on Instagram (@ydelibros). I wrote short essays with this voice, but my body demanded that I write longer essays. And then I wanted to develop this type of writing in this novel, a mixture of essay and narrative.

–A style prevails in the networks that is the opposite of that of the novel.

–On social networks, many people who are not always exhibitionistic, sarcastic or funny try to adopt this pose. I am a shy and introverted person, but when I studied philosophy, French authors like Deleuze and Derrida were in vogue, a philosophy of impudence and exhibitionism. Then I started acting like that. But someone told me: Dani, that’s not you. On Instagram I took the opposite pose, a calm person who speaks in a quiet voice. Actually, that’s how I am. It’s a pose that allowed me to find my own voice.

–English notebook It begins with a situation that the protagonist and narrator considers anomalous: a fly appears and then more, and this triggers an obsessive fight against it. Sometimes his life seems quiet, he walks barefoot through the park, reads in libraries. And suddenly a minimal event fills him with worry and unease.

– He tells himself his own story and does so with kindness. He tries with all his might to believe that his life is a peaceful life, but underneath there is a desperation that, in this case, comes to the fore through an unexpected event. There is a contradiction between the narrative he gives of his life and his real life, one colliding with the other and creating these moments of fear.

–In the novel there is a sentence that defines the achievement of very well English notebook: “Even the most ordinary life becomes extraordinary when you write about it.” How can we narrate an ordinary life when the trigger of the narrative is often that which breaks the routine, the extraordinary?

–I don’t know if it’s in the same passage where the narrator adds that when we write we pay attention to what we’re writing about, in this case our lives, and that attention alone elevates everything it touches. I think that’s what happens: when we write, we pay special attention to it.

–Was it a challenge for you to make this character’s life interesting?

–I found it very challenging for a few months and then it became incredibly easy for me. As I told you, first I discovered the voice I liked on social networks, then I wrote the essays, and then I thought that voice was suitable for a story. So I went looking for the novel. I saw him straight away: Bromley Common, this character, and I knew I wanted him as a geriatric nurse, a job I did when I arrived in England but which left a brutal impression on me because it is very emotionally intense. For such a solitary character, this job allowed him to interact with patients. I clearly saw the place, the atmosphere, the tone; I knew it, but I couldn’t write it. Ursula K. Le Guin says that there are writers who should write every day and others who shouldn’t; I’m one of those people who don’t do that. It is best not to bring the story to light until it is ripe within you. Then I went to Malaga for a month to visit my family, and when I returned to England, in the cold and my loneliness, this story suddenly came to light, which I had forgotten on vacation but which had been brewing underneath. It was overwhelming. I got up at 6 a.m. and wrote until 12 p.m. I wrote the first draft in two weeks. It was a burst of inspiration.

–The character Carlos is a great reader and has a love for libraries. This sentence amused me: “I closed the libraries like others closed the bars.”

-That’s correct. When I was young, I closed both the libraries during the week and the bars on the weekends. I closed the library in my neighborhood or at my college and then went to the general library, which was open until 10 p.m. At the weekend I also experienced the parallel bars phase to the fullest. As far as writing goes, they give me the opportunity to have a job; I don’t connect to the Internet there, I don’t carry my cell phone with me and I can concentrate fully. Plus, it’s like a warm stove, a feeling of companionship when you see someone reading there. I want to write a tribute to libraries.

–How was your trip? What are your previous novels about?

–I started writing when I graduated from college and left home. I needed the money and saw an ad for a short story prize, wrote one and won it. So I signed up for various competitions until one of these stories got longer and became a novel. It will have been worth it. I sent it to publishers but they didn’t respond to me until it won the Vuela la Kite Award in 2017; Its president, Luis Goytisolo, is a writer I admire very much. I was inspired by a German girl I was dating who goes on a series of adventures but goes a little crazy; It’s a young adult novel that has a lot to do with drugs and experiments. I then published in 2021 Where my friends arein the Plataforma publishing house, a kind of autofiction.

–Tell me about your experiences as a translator.

-Reading The Paris Review I found an author I didn’t know, the Irishman Frank O’Connor, I looked him up in the library and fell in love from the first line. I have made a selection and translated them into a very exquisite independent editorial: “The Swiss Army Knife”. He is a wonderful storyteller. Julian Barnes has edited a selection of his stories and is highly praised by Richard Ford.

Encouraged by the reputation enjoyed by police and thriller novels in the UK, Daniel Morales says he has completed a novel that belongs to the genre. And he has another one in his hand that ventures into the Gothic style. Different facets of this author that we are only just getting to know.

Readers can enjoy it in March 2026 English notebooka novel with a lovable character who shares his fears, insecurities and readings with the reader. Because of its tone and sensitivity, it is part of the genealogy of writers who have cultivated restraint, such as John Williams, Kazuo Ishiguro and others mentioned in its pages, such as May Sarton or Diana Athill, whose friendly voices the protagonist chooses as accompaniment, a voice track that he follows from now on. English notebook.