Milena Busquets and the fear of not recognizing her life on screen: "The crazy writer will come out."

Milena Busquets (Barcelona, ​​1972) says that writing a novel acclaimed by both critics and readers so early in one's career "is a real pain." She says this without batting an eye, as she finishes her breakfast at a bakery in Sant Gervasi. She was lucky, "or unlucky," to go through it with her second novel, This Too Shall Pass (Anagrama, 2015), whose film adaptation, directed by María Ripoll, has just arrived in theaters nationwide this weekend, starring Marina Salas and Carlos Cuevas, and which deals with maternal grief and love.

“It's true that there are writers who spend their entire lives trying to make one of their works resonate deeply with the public and fail. And not because they write worse. The thing is, when you reach a goal early, it's easy for everything that comes after to not be as successful. That's normal, really. This work is a craft, after all. There are books that work, and others that don't. It sucks, but it's okay to fail. The important thing is not to get frustrated and to understand that changing expectations is a triumph in itself. Those who don't reach this conclusion will be doomed to a resounding decline.”

There are writers who spend their entire lives trying to make their works resonate deeply with the public, but they never succeed.

It's worth noting that there is something that worries the author, "if worried is the word": finding a topic that interests her enough to be able to expand on it, because, above all, she enjoys learning. In her latest book, La dulce existencia (The Sweet Existence) (Anagrama), which has just arrived in bookstores, she has found it: "Entering the unknown world of film adaptations." Specifically, her own, which has forced her to return to the world she described ten years ago. "It produced a mixture of vertigo and longing, but at the same time, everything that was happening seemed very literary."

Busquets says the film rights were purchased years ago, but that this is "a very slow process," and that he wasn't entirely sure that a production would actually happen. When he finally saw that it was, he didn't pay much attention at first, understanding that the book and the film were running on parallel paths. However, his son, Héctor, who dreams of one day becoming a theater director, was very interested in seeing the world of actors, directors, and sets and expressed his hope of making a cameo with his mother in the film.

“We were invited up to Cadaqués, and that's where I met the whole crew. Everyone was extremely kind. Sometimes I wondered, 'Are they acting with me too?' I imagine not, although that's the question that always arises when you're surrounded by actors. However, I must say that Marina Salas, who plays me in the film, gave me a feeling of enormous sincerity.” It was during that visit that the idea of ​​writing about what she was experiencing came to her.

At the time of this interview, Busquets admits that she hasn't yet been able to see the film. "I should do so out of respect for the cast and its director, María Ripoll. But I'm afraid. First, that I won't like it and that the egotistical, crazy writer in me will come out. And second, I don't know how to deal with watching something that tells something similar to my life, but isn't my life. It's people interpreting things that have happened to me. She may like another piece of writing more or less, an adaptation of her work, but, in this case, what's being adapted is my life."

Despite her doubts, she knows she'll end up doing it, and that one afternoon, out for a walk, when she least expects it, she'll walk into a room at an off-peak time and see her. She doesn't know if she'll do it alone or with her friend Marga, who also lends a hand whenever she has a blood test. "It's great not to be or feel alone. There have been many stages in my life when I've been alone, which is why I really appreciate it when I have people who help me make everything more bearable. My children too, of course, but there are some burdens I don't think should fall on them."

There are burdens that should not fall on my children”

Regarding the film, she admits: "If I don't like it, it won't be such a big deal. What I'm curious about is what readers think, because for many, the book is important. It's also important to me, but less so, because when I published it, I'd already let it go."

Beyond the film set and his thoughts, Busquets uses his pages to recall all kinds of anecdotes, such as when James Ellroy advised him not to waste money or the years when Carmen Balcells made Barcelona an even more literary city. "No one has been able to replace her, and we miss a figure like that."