The first time Javier Cercas traveled to Latin America was in 2001 with the promotion of Salamis soldiers. His friend Roberto Bolaño invited him to the Chilean Book Fair and he began to gather readers little by little, and since then he has not left the region to promote his works. After more than 20 years, with Crazy God at the end of the worldHis journey through dozens of countries in America made him feel like… Rock star. “The difference with this book is that everything happened suddenly,” he says. Remember, for example, the presentation in Peru where a thousand people filled a room and spent four hours signing books. “You see that there are people who care, and you feel an enthusiasm that is difficult to see, not just in Spain, but in Europe. This thing about the lines is brutal, this is Latin America.”
The surprise about the book’s influence in Latin America was captured not only by Cercas, but also by its publishing house: Penguin Random House. Successful sales for Crazy God at the end of the world It represents in the region half of the total number in Spanish: 200,000 copies in eight months. Pilar Reyes, director of the literary department at Penguin Random House, notes that great interest had arisen in Argentina around the book because of the controversy over Bergoglio’s role as pope, but the conditions of the publishing market in that country – with massive inflation and barriers to imports – did not lead to sales, which so far stand at 18,000 copies in paperback in that country. Mexico comes in the lead, with 22,000 books sold, followed by Colombia with 17,000 books, and Chile with 6,500 books. “Colombia has grown incredibly well in the last 15 years,” says Reyes. “It is a dynamic market that approaches Mexico.”
I ask. In 2024, Spain was the guest of honor at the FIL in Guadalajara, but was ultimately unable to attend.
answer. The doctor told us that my mother was very close and died on the day she was supposed to board the plane. By then, Crazy God at the end of the world It’s practically finished. And something unusual happened with a realistic novel like the one I was writing. In fiction you create meaning, and in non-fiction you must have the patience to wait for reality to give it meaning. Something similar happened with my parents Anatomy of a moment. In this case, after my mother died, it happened again.
S. The book was a huge success in Italy, France, Spain and Latin America. Was the reception different? How was the book received in Argentina?
R. There is political polarization over Bergoglio. Why didn’t you go to your country? There was a lot of speculation about that. I think the explanation is quite basic. Because if he takes off or wears the hood, some may interpret that he is with Peronism and others are against it. But the book, as far as I know, was fully welcomed by some and by others. Even when I was on the show of my friend Jorge Fernandez Díaz, who is a staunch anti-Peronist, I realized that they were in favor of it. Because, of course, you understand, “he was, like Maradona, an Argentine.”
S. Were you surprised by the great reception the book received in Latin America?
R. I’ve had readers here since the beginning. I’ve traveled a lot and I always felt that (Latin America) received my books well. I always felt like I was present here. I also always felt like it was very difficult after that Boom (Latin America), that Spanish-language writers are present here and in Spain. The good thing is to have valuable writers in all countries because we write in the same language, but in reality this does not happen. This sounds like a drama to me. We work with a distorted tradition.
S. And in Italy?
R. A large part of the Catholic hierarchy immediately agreed to talk about this book. For example, with Cardinal Zuppi, the head of the Episcopal Conference who was one of the popes, more revolutionary than Francis, he cited the book in his sermons and I discussed it with him in Assisi. I had debates with Enzo Bianchi, a great theologian. Cardinal Tolentino was present at the presentation in Rome. In contrast, the reaction in Spain was defensive from the start.
S. Why did this happen in Spain?
R. The ecclesiastical hierarchy took a defensive stance. I will not give examples so as not to reveal them. But the Spanish Church, to put it mildly, remains staunchly anti-Francis. This is what was stated in the book and this was the reaction. “Be careful, be careful, this man is not a Catholic, he is an atheist.” What I’ve noticed, more and more, is the increasingly positive reception from the Catholic grassroots.
Don’t panic. God’s return has already been announced with great fanfare. No, my God, don’t worry, he’s not back. We still live in a world without God. Rosalia’s mysterious outburst will pass. And also to Aloda Ruiz de Azua. Because the monasteries remained empty, the seminaries remained empty, and the churches remained empty, the number of Catholics continued to decline.
S. What happened?
R. Something very simple was bound to happen sooner or later. In Spain, there was anti-Catholic phobia, a completely justified phobia. After 40 years of national Catholicism. After centuries and centuries of the disastrously authoritarian, anti-sex church. My generation, mine, had this completely understandable phobia. The problem with phobias is that they prevent you from doing things. And I, in all humility, in the book, the big effort I make is trying to understand the Catholic Church. I will never tire of repeating it. It’s been a huge effort of mine to clear my eyes of prejudice and try to go there to see what’s really going on. That was the hardest ever.
S. What did you understand?
R. That Christ was a public danger. There is a phrase by a great French writer, forgotten by the French, a brilliant and crazy mystic, Charles Péguy, a phrase that seems Chinese to us: Christianity is far from the bourgeois spirit. This is the Christianity of Christ, and what we have known is exactly the opposite. In Latin America it was different. You find a Catholic Church, not all of them, but often there is one that responds to the Christianity of Christ, associated with the poor, with those who have no place to die. This explains the theory of liberation, the theology of the people without Bergoglio’s Marxism, and Zapatista Catholicism. A completely different church from the Spanish Church, associated with power and the rich. Suppose Christ rose? “Who are these?” he was asking. They represent a Christianity without Christ, Zemmour claims, which is like paella without rice. Christ may come to terms with the Zapatistas, but he will not come to terms with the Vox Party, because the immigrants must be welcomed.