Interview with Carmen Posadas

Carmen Posadas was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1953, where she lived until the age of twelve. In 1965 she moved to Madrid with her family, after living in Moscow, Buenos Aires and London, where her father was an ambassador. She began her literary career writing books for children and in 1984 won the Premio Nacional de Literatura. She published her first novel, Cinco Moscas Azules (The Last Resort) in 1996, which was a great success, while her second novel, Pequeñas Infamias (Little Indiscretions) won the 1998 Planeta Prize. Her work has been translated into 21 languages and published in more than 40 countries. Her latest book to be translated into English is Child's Play. Newsweek has described her as one of the most prominent Latin American authors of her generation.

10 Questions

1) What led you into writing?

I was very, very shy as a girl, I started writing a diary. Fortunately it is lost now as it was full of all kinds of “dickensianly” sad stuff! (Terrible, really.)

2) What was your earliest career aspiration?

I remember I never told anybody I had written a book till it was actually published. I didn’t want to be the kind of person that says “Oh you know I’m writing a book, blah, blah” and never gets it finished, let alone published.

3) Can you describe your latest book and its inspiration in thirty words?

Child’s Play can be read as a thriller with naughty children in it. It can also be read as a reflection on beauty, talent and strange coincidences.

4) Do you have any plans for your next book?

I’m starting to work on one right now but I’m rather superstitious and don’t like talking about it at such an early stage!

5) What has been the most exciting moment in your career?

When I won the Planeta Prize in 1998, also when I got a wonderful review from The New York Times for the first time.

6) What are you reading right now?

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.

7) If you could have dinner with any three people, past or present, who would they be?

I´d love to have dinner with Proust, Oscar Wilde and St Theresa of Avila - a weird trio, but excellent writers all of them.

8) Which period in history would you most like to have lived through?

I´m Uruguayan and I would have loved to live in my country during the colonial period (or anywhere in the West Indies during that time).

9) If your house was on fire, which three books would you save from the flames?

I have a first edition of Animal Farm, one of Lolita and one of 1984. I think would dash for those.

10) What do you do to relax?

Reading, definitely!