Who has not ever looked under the bed to see what monster nests there? Or has he not feared that a creature from another world will come out of the closet when the light goes out? They are fears that many children have at one time or another and that they drag into their adult life.
David Roas (Barcelona, 1965) was interested in this fantastic imaginary, the result of fears and insecurities, which, in turn, is collective, since they are fears so widespread that it is not difficult to see them interpreted on the big screen or in literature. Under this premise, the Barcelona writer publishes Niños de la mano de Páginas de espuma, a book whose protagonists are children who play, run and dance to escape terror or precisely because they are terror.
“I was very interested in talking about childhood fears. But above all, what I wanted was to create a fantastic literature book starring parents and children, because there aren't too many of them. At least not with this haunting tone. Yes, it is more common for mothers to appear, but for me it was important to highlight the father figure in this genre", the author tells La Vanguardia, who admits that "I don't know where this desire to talk about this comes from since I was never a especially fearful child.
However, he admits that there is something that has always fascinated him and produced chills in equal parts: “the fact of disappearing after death. That is to say, not to die in itself, but to be there one day and no longer exist the next. It's something I've been thinking about since I was a child and still today, at 57, it continues to obsess me”.
The germ of this book was born in a story from Invasion, his previous work. Specifically, in his 'dictated stories', which "were stories that my son told me and that I tried to capture on paper. In them, I tried to glimpse the fears and delusions that the little one confessed to me. Some were so crazy that I saw clearly that there was material for new stories there". An example of this is the Chupacabra, "a fantastic being that appeared in my son's dream. He upset him a lot and came to draw it for me to get an idea. I have included that image so that readers feel
Roas is of the opinion that “everyday life is where the true terror is hidden. And that is precisely why it is disturbing.” The writer plays with the blurred limits between the supposed tranquility of everyday life and the unexpected invasion of the mysterious. For this reason, there are several stories that take place in places as common as the family home. "In the end, what is more frightening than your place of peace and rest being jeopardized?"
