The last night of Libertad Guerra

About the book

THE WARS AND THE EIGHTIES

The historical figures mentioned in this alternative Spain, such as Juan Carlos I the Brief or Antonio Tejero, do not intervene in the plot. In that alternative Spain, however, there are mentions of the Madrid movement or the attack suffered by John Paul II, and there are also memories, perhaps in the most intense pages of the novel, of what the Guerras in Lerma, the mothers of Freedom, during the civil war and Franco’s regime. Without spoiling the plot of the novel, an inspector nicknamed Bogart does have weight in the novel, a character who bears certain similarities with an infamous police officer during the Transition: «The worst, the most bastards, play in that league. And you had the bad luck of being touched by one of them, right? Who? “Billy the Kid, Bogart, Sandokan…?” we read. On the other hand, this novel has a soundtrack. At the end of the book, Leandro Pérez indicates: «This book would be different—at the very least, it would have another beginning—without Imagine, by John Lennon. Without Miguel Hernández, Luis Cernuda, María Teresa León and Federico García Lorca. Without the music of Bruce Springsteen, the Clash, Serrat, Mari Trini, Cecilia, Bob Marley, Burning, Loquillo, Nino Bravo, Kortatu, Víctor Manuel, Leonard Cohen and Elvis Presley. Without Spartacus, Alone in the face of danger and The Crack.

THE CHARACTERS, DESCRIBED BY FREEDOM WAR

Freedom War: «I imagine that my name is no longer Libertad nor my last name Guerra. I can’t go through life like this, I think on this March day in 1981 while I soap my hair. Evaristo Ledesma, the deputy director who for days has been trampling over the editorial office as if he already wore director stripes, gave me a very direct hint yesterday, shortly before closing: you see, but now your signature looks like a pseudonym, with your signature and on top of it with your texts, all fucking day waiting for faggot musicians and perverted artists, the censors think we’re staying with them. And that’s not true, says Evaristo, to your colleagues in the business it will seem totally wrong that your name is Libertad Guerra and that you are anti-Spanish, anti-coup and anti-everything, but now those who are in charge are in charge, and they have come—he needs to say “we have come”— to stay”.

Imanol: «A beautiful and brave little dog, looking for shelter, that’s what you are. I don’t know you, you don’t know me, how many words did we exchange last night before you stuck me in the toilet? And what did we tell each other afterwards? Your body on my body, your eyes on mine, and my scorched skin, yes, you make me horny with your talk, now with your words, although yesterday there were none. Your lava and my fire, and nothing else, nothing else mattered last night, and nothing else matters to me now, I hate the man who sleeps in a whorehouse or in the subway, I don’t even know if I want to know you and for you to know me, but I want to disappoint you. Naked, little dog, you are a big tiger.

Liberty’s sister: «The dad throws himself on me, hugs me a cream pie, soft and sweet, kisses me and, I don’t know why, I shed two big tears, it took me too long to return to town, and he tells me that I look really pretty, and how she smiles, no one is happier than my dad when she smiles, even though she wears black and only black from head to toe: the big shoes, the stockings, the skirt, the blouse and the cardigan.

María Pacheco, mother of Libertad: «I love her, I adore her and, as is normal, sometimes I can’t with her, nor can she with me. She is staying in the bones of her. She has always been very thin, fine and elegant like an Extremaduran Audrey Hepburn, but she impresses now.”

Jacinta: «My other mother. My second mother. When Jacinta smiles, and she smiles many times, the wrinkles that carve her forehead and her crow’s feet narrow and make her face smaller.