The return to writing of Carmen Amoraga: the winner of the Nadal Prize who passed through the Valencian Government

Carmen Amoraga is a writer. Although for eight years he lost that condition. Or, at the very least, it became blurred, to the point that she herself came to doubt if it was.. And more: if he could start writing again. For eight years she was, above all, general director of the Generalitat Valenciana. She had previously won the Nadal Prize (in 2014, for Life was That), but not since 2015: general director. Of Culture and Heritage, after Ximo Puig proposed her for the position.

After leaving office and announcing to Puig that he would not repeat, no matter what happened in the regional elections, Amoraga writes again. To be a writer.

Although his new book, The Reckless Heart, has nothing to do with his political adventure – but with the lives of two people who, close to retirement, decide to embark on a love adventure with unforeseen effects – his writing and publishing process also serves to explain what happens to the personal life of a senior official beyond what is seen in press conferences, at inaugurations and in papers.

The writer became a politician despite a first denial. “For quite some time I said no, I am not a politician. But, heck, it was politics: I was doing politics.” From then on he imposed a rule: he would not publish any book while in office. “It made me uncomfortable to take time away from promoting a novel.” Another thing had to do with writing. “It was my intention, but I didn't have the mental capacity to disconnect. “The pandemic had to come to be able to do it.”

At that time when within the body of a politician there was a sleeping writer, some things would happen to Carmen Amoraga (from Picanya, south of Valencia) that would underpin her future, although she did not know it yet. As happens in his new novel, a doctor was the protagonist, triggering his own story..

She monitored her mother's glucose through the doctor until one of the times they called each other, the doctor asked the politician how she was and the politician, who was not well, started to cry.. kept crying. And the politician, again Carmen Amoraga, told him and told him. “That's when I thought: how sad it must be when you don't have anyone to tell what's happening to you or you don't feel like telling the people around you.. “That feeling was the first spark of the novel.”.

A few days ago, with the novel already published, Amoraga returned to the office. “What a shame, what is he going to think,” he said to himself at the risk of meeting the doctor again.. “When my doctor saw me she told me: what's wrong with you? You are very red…”.

Regular author of Planeta, this time she publishes with Espasa (within the same group) thanks to an unexpected meeting with Esteban González Pons. From different parties, Pons called her for the first time to propose that she present his book, Satan's Seat. From political writer to political writer, he was able to tell. “We only saw each other that day, but we have had many conversations about politics, about literature. And he introduced me to who would be my new editor.”.

With the fuse of his novel lit, the next decision was to abandon his characters of 30, 40, 50 years, and put in the foreground characters of 60, “often relegated to two roles, that of caregiver – of your children, of your dogs, your apartment, you – or the cargo – which prevents you from going to do whatever you want because you have to be taking care of it -. That's why I wanted them to be active people in love, sex, work and life.”.

He composed the robotic portrait of the characters, imagined in detail their careers, their manias, their constants.. “Folios and folios that I have not used. For example, the menu for the protagonist's first communion”. Traced the story. He consulted with experts to solve the story: weapons, cemeteries, medicine. But he was still in politics. I couldn't publish.

Until at the beginning of the year Amoraga met with Ximo Puig. “I will not want to continue in office after the elections. If you want to dismiss me before, I understand it,” he told him. At that time he took for granted the continuity of the progressive pact for a third term. Only he had decided to get off here. “I don't quite see that today you are in Health, tomorrow in Agriculture, the next day in Education. Politics does not have to be a profession. Two legislatures were already good. With three I think I would have become a professional politician”.

The time had come to publish again, to be a writer again, only… The doubts began. “I was very afraid to write.. What if I'm no longer worth it? What if after these years I'm no longer selling?”. His psychologist – whom he includes, veiledly, in the book's acknowledgments – recommended that he spend some periods without writing, to see how he felt.. “And I felt infinitely worse.”.

The publication of the new novel has served to reaffirm herself as a writer: “Now I realize that it is not that I write because I can't help it, I write because I want to.”.

In The Reckless Heart, José Manuel (the doctor) and Tina (who works at the Museum of Fine Arts) represent what happens when you fall in love, even when it is not appropriate to do so: “It doesn't matter if you are 20 or 60 years old, you are going to live a physical process and no matter how old you are, you always fall in love with the illusion of the first time. What matters to them is that, precisely because of their age, guilt influences them more than hope.. The guilt weighs heavily on them throughout the novel,” explains Carmen Amoraga, who is once again a writer..