Sometimes the most unfortunate accidents affect the people we love the most. Tomás Salcedo went to Asturias to celebrate his mother's birthday. He parked the car on a hill. He forgot to put on the parking brake. The car moved and ran over his sister Mariana de him. The girl died.
And since misfortunes never come alone, when Tomás entered the house he discovered the body of his mother. She had committed suicide. Meanwhile, his other two brothers headed to the family date unaware of the drama. Angela, Mariana's twin, was traveling from the United States. Leo, the little one, had left Almería, but that night he confused him so much that he lost his cell phone and the money.
With this start, Javier Rovira serves the reader with an intrigue based on silence, lies and revenge in Mala mar (Black Series RBA), his second novel. The author from Almeria travels between that dramatic present and a past, that of the Salcedo brothers' childhood, to compose a novel that becomes darker and more exciting with each chapter.
“I worked with two stories in parallel. The one about the badly parked car accident I drew from the experience of a friend who, luckily, did not have such disastrous consequences. On the other hand, I inquired about the Francoist torturer Antonio González Pacheco, alias Billy el Niño to build the plot of the Salcedo family's past”, says Rovira.
In that investigation, the author discovered that “those tortured at Puerta del Sol were locked up in dungeons that had small windows at the top through which they could see people leading a normal life pass by.” "That seemed very disturbing to me and I placed Emilio there," he explains in an interview with La Vanguardia.
The life of young Emilio is intertwined with that of the Salcedos. And also that of his executioner, Zamora. Rovira gives voice to all the characters “because the story is very complex and cannot be told from a single point of view. In addition, I was interested in the fact that all the protagonists explained how they had experienced the events, including the guilty ones, because each one can have their reasons”.
In its journey through the times of transition, Mala mar delves into "the contempt suffered by many women of the time" and presents almost all of its female characters as victims of torture, abuse or murder.
"They are physically and psychologically abused women in a horrible world that, fortunately, has been changing," says Rovira, who can read that far to prevent readers who delve into the novel from falling victim to the dreaded spoiler.
