We would exist the sea of ​​Belén Gopegui

Press release

Lena, Hugo, Camelia, Ramiro and Jara share a flat at number 26 on Calle Martín de Vargas in Madrid. At forty years old, living together is a necessity that arises from salaries that are not enough to afford a home of their own in the city, but it is also a way of understanding relationships and of valuing sharing. Between failed relationships and a job as a scientific researcher that is more frustrating than expected, Lena has found a refuge in Martín de Vargas. For Hugo, a web developer, the shared flat is also a place of affection and trust where he can dream of uncertain love stories or free himself from the climate of stress experienced in the company that employs him. Ramiro, an employee in a DIY warehouse, and Camelia, an administrator in a construction company, create bonds and a community in Martín de Vargas, as they do daily in the field of union activity. Jara, more fragile and unstable than the rest, is the only one who is unemployed, and one day she decides to empty her room and leave without warning or leaving a trace.

The mysterious disappearance of Jara, with which the novel opens, disconcerts her companions who fear for her mental and emotional well-being, and at the same time feel a great emptiness. While they continue with their lives and their daily battles, Lena, Hugo, Ramiro and Camelia debate whether to go in search of her or respect her need to escape and hide from everything and everyone. Jara, for her part, tries to start a new life in Calatayud, a destination she has reached by pure chance. There she rents a modest loft and manages to get a replacement at the bar of a bar.

A few clues and the insistence of Renata, Jara’s mother, convince the group to travel in search of their friend. When they finally find her, questions, relief and the happiness of reunion intertwine. Jara makes them understand that her place in Martín de Vargas traps her in an uncomfortable situation and that she now needs this opportunity that she has given herself. Her companions then decide to keep a room for her in the shared apartment and they return to Madrid knowing that, despite the physical distance, they support each other thanks to the loyalty and bonds created in the doorway 26 of Martín de Vargas street.

KEYS TO THE NOVEL

Throughout her long career, Belén Gopegui has conceived her novels and essays as artefacts capable of representing reality and, at the same time, of questioning power and the hegemonic socioeconomic order, challenging the reader and inviting them to take a step, however small, from reflection to action in defence of a more just society. Literature and politics go hand in hand in works such as El comité de la noche, Quédate este día y esta noche conmigo and Acceso no aborto (The Night Committee), which tell stories that investigate inequality, the mechanisms of power, social action, vulnerability and injustice, among other themes with a marked political and moral tone.

In line with the pieces that precede it, Existirías el mar is a choral novel that, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, shows us a world where uncertainty, job insecurity and difficulties in affording housing are the order of the day, and an unbridgeable gap has opened between those who have assets and those who do not; but also, where other ways of living together, sharing and building community and family are established as collective and supportive alternatives that challenge the nefarious laws of social exclusion. Gopegui focuses on the different protagonists of this story to compose a mosaic of points of view on reality in which there is no lack of discrepancies or even internal contradictions. Moving from one character to another, the plot advances quickly but every so often the thread of events is interrupted by the narrator’s voice, which, reflective, sets forth its theses on human dynamics. With these changes of speed and tone, Gopegui leads the novel into a hybrid terrain where fiction borders on essay, and writing takes on a philosophical dimension that gives transcendence to the story told. Existirían el mar is a novel that revolves around a disappearance and a reunion, but above all it is a work that puts life at the center, understood as that which is woven between laughter, frustrations, failures, shared moments and the apparent banality of everyday life.

CHARACTERS

Lena «Lena believed that doing research in a laboratory would be exciting, that the promise of discovering something, of advancing science and the fight against disease would fulfill her. When she chose her studies she had a role model, Jonas Salk, who donated the polio vaccine to humanity, and when asked why he had not patented it, she replied: Can the sun be patented? But all that is so far from what she does. She has not been able to contribute anything to the epidemic either. They were forced to work more days than would have been prudent and at no time did they even think of putting that work at the service of what was happening. She could not participate then, nor can she now, in the decision of what they are going to research, she barely has any autonomy to give an opinion on how to do it, and she has no autonomy to choose who will benefit. She has worked at the university and in three different companies, and that has never changed. If she is home early it is because yesterday she spent the night in the laboratory and today she only went there for three hours in the afternoon. She was so eager to get there early and surprise Jara, who walked by, walked by, corrected herself, there alone almost all day. Not anymore, it’s been four days since she left. And she still doesn’t understand why she hasn’t said goodbye. Jara is not her partner; she is her friend, indecisive, obsessive, beloved. (pp. 14-15)

Ramiro «Ramiro finishes organizing his aisle in the multinational DIY and decoration company. «Full, clean, marked», the mantra of each morning. That all the merchandise is placed, that the shelves are clean, and that all the labels are in place. Fifteen meters on each side, two and a half meters high, one linear meter of separation. He maintains a cordial relationship with his aisle, he likes the tools, he likes knowing that his task is specific, to stick to his aisle, that there are no catastrophes in his aisle, that no one slips, that few argue, to have the defibrillator well located because one day a man fainted in his aisle and they managed to get him through until the ambulance arrived. The more his aisle opens up to the world, the more cordiality becomes, dealing with customers has its thing but Ramiro insists on liking it and tries to be very conscious of how he does it, especially when he has to close orders and installations or make claims to suppliers. He would prefer another world with shorter working days and other options. He works modestly to make it possible in the double shift of militancy, but while this other world is being built, he does not mind occupying a corridor. (p. 24)

Camellia «They change the subject, clear away the plates, make yogurt with honey for dessert. Camelia is on the verge of telling Hugo twice what happened at work. But it still affects her too much. In the end, she remains silent. They clean up together, talk about that concert they would have liked to go to but there were no tickets left. Hugo goes to his room for a while. Camelia puts on a jacket, opens the living room window and leans against it. The cold makes her skin even redder; she doesn’t care, she seeks that feeling of being outdoors and covered. If she peeks out a little she can see the small park in the background. Although there is no horizon, she likes to look at the people passing by and if she sees one of the neighborhood cats among the cars, she brings them something to eat. However, now she is only seeing Valentín’s worn face; he is sixty years old but today he seemed older. He has taught her everything she knows about unionism; He is a salesman in the household appliances section and a member of the company committee, despite the fact that in the large department store where he works it is almost impossible for the yellow unions not to win.» (pp. 40-41)

Hugo «Hugo has a story. He assumed that he could no longer go on, not with that force. Because Hugo has seen the future. He no longer wants to fantasize about a blurred horizon where everything will be possible. He has living conditions that he cannot escape. Of course he would like to leave work, to live near the sea, but not alone, not even with Chema. He would not want to do it if the others had to stay. It is stupid, everyone would tell him, we are glad that you are well. And it is true, but Hugo carries with him a feeling that he found written when he was a teenager; it does not allude to his moral character nor, he believes, to his cowardice: it is just there, like other people prefer hazelnuts to almonds or are more or less cold. The sentence says: «One can feel ashamed of being the only one who is happy.» (p. 43)

Jara «Jara wakes up in the small loft she has rented in Calatayud. She was on the verge of cheating herself when she was assigned to this destiny. She did not know the place, she had never been there before, but she understood that, in some way, she had imagined a place on the coast, perhaps, she thought, because the sea consoles our efforts and creates the sensation, even if superficial, that we have finally arrived, as if she could put a signature under things. However, the sea was a dream of Martín de Vargas completely, she did not want to fulfill it alone. A forest in the mountains might also have been suitable, spaces where she could disappear for a second time. But she also did not want to end up in a place that would serve as a pretext for her to stop asking herself things. Finally, she hated cheating herself. Jara fulfilled her destiny. » (p. 103)

RenataJara’s mother «At that moment, Renata has just submitted some papers, gets a number for the next procedure and waits. She has already retired, although, as the pension is small and she has always been afraid that Jara might need money, she has an illegal job in an agency where she worked for a few years. She finishes the last pending procedure and this time she does not ask for any more, she goes down to the subway and heads to Martín de Vargas. She crosses her arms on her seat and narrows her eyes, she is worried. She knows she cannot show it. When she sees Lena she will have to stand up straight and pretend to be that self-assured person she is not. Maybe that is why she likes terror so much, in books, in movies. The terror she carries inside and that she can see there outside, let it expand with hardly any danger, terror, horror, not when it explodes but when it vaguely forms, whispers, appears in sudden waves that later recede. He needs to look at it from afar because he knows it can be close, and it can be inside and flap its wings with a force that he would not like to have to deal with. He thinks that maturity is one thing, knowing that one has already lived and that, therefore, it is time to stand up to receive the blows directed at people still in training. And another thing is the obligation to always pull oneself out of the fire because that is convenient for what in his time was called the dominant classes. (p. 67)