The finalist novel for the Planet, Stories of Married Women, by Cristina Campos (Barcelona, 1975), deals with nothing less than "the truth of contemporary marriages" with a tone that the author defines as "a mix between Bergman and Woody Allen, very ”.
Those who talk are three co-workers in a women's magazine (their chief editor also gets involved) and the peculiarity is that “they all have stories of infidelity, some more subtle than others. The brave carry them out, others remain in the psychic”. Campos, casting director, says to herself “I am a very good friend of my friends, I listen very well to the women around me, I talk about the declining sexual desire of women towards their husbands, which is diluted over time. The reverse is not the case: husbands, despite having been married for ten years, continue to desire their wives' bodies. I talk about marriage and its routines with tenderness, but I address that, when we want to be mothers, our libido is very high and then drops.
In fact, he confesses, "all the stories I tell have happened." Namely: Gabriela, a married woman, begins a double life after taking a lover. The second “makes love with her husband without feeling anything for ten years; she is attracted to women but can't bring herself to do anything with them. The third time, her husband doesn't want her, but nevertheless the guy sleeps with luxury prostitutes”.
“Marriages do not limit freedom –he points out–, they are children. It hurts us to admit it, but many times we endure or do not dare to do certain things for them. “I have been generous in writing –she continues–, I have undressed, with a great lack of modesty. It is autobiographical in feelings, it has nothing to do with my marriage.
Campos is a passionate reader of Annie Ernaux, Anaïs Nin or Marguerite Duras. If the previous one of her Lemon bread with poppy seeds had a recipe in each chapter, here each part begins with the title of a film. The novel will go on sale on November 4.
