The writer Carmen Posadas presented her latest novel, The Mysterious Case of the Titanic Impostor, at an event held on March 4 at the Círculo Ecuestre. The event was the starting shot for the reading club created by the business club and the Editorial Division of Grupo Planeta.
After the presentation, by Isabel Estany, vice president of the Cultural Area of the Círculo Ecuestre, the Uruguayan and Spanish writer had an interesting conversation with her editor, Miryam Galaz, in which she presented to the attendees the exciting plot of her book and reviewed her professional career, marked by successful literary works.
The writer began the conference by talking about the origin of her latest novel: "I was in those horrible moments when I couldn't think of anything to write. And then, one day I went to the presentation of a book by Julia Navarro and Judge Marchena sat next to me. I don't know how we ended up talking about the Titanic and he told me a story that I didn't know at all and I found it fascinating". "In this case I had to talk about a very famous shipwreck, which made it very difficult to find information that wasn't known, that was the challenge". "I realized that it had to be like a novel with all the elements of the genre: a little bit of 'Rebecca', a little bit of Agatha Christie, a little bit of mystery, a house full of secrets and a suspicious housekeeper", argued the author.
Asked about her training as a writer, Carmen Posadas attributed her more “self-conscious” childhood to the fact that she is the writer she is today: “Whenever I am asked this question, I always answer the same: I owe everything to my defects and nothing to my virtues. I was an extremely shy girl, the ugly one in a family of handsome men... And what I did was go to my room and write a long, tearful diary. So, if I had not been such a self-conscious girl, I would not be talking to you today”.
Asked whether her achievements were due to inherent talent or to the muses of inspiration, the writer claimed that "talent is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. It is all work, work, work. To write, you do not need to be extraordinarily intelligent or cultured, but you do need to be a great reader, a curious person and someone who endures until the end".
Following this line, the moderator asked the speaker about the authors who have inspired her work: "The one I have copied the most is Dickens, because Dickens is the kind of writer I would like to be. He is capable of interesting an intellectual audience and at the same time the reader who just wants to follow a good story". Likewise, Posadas acknowledged her passion for Emilia Pardo Bazán, whom she praised for her fight for equality in literature: "Emilia Pardo Bazán was a standard-bearer for women's rights and was also the first writer to write a thriller in Spain. She decided that she wanted to become a crime novelist to put things right with Conan Doyle, because according to her, Sherlock Holmes is a very flat character, he has no psychological depth, and she was going to write a detective with much more depth". "In 1920, Emilia Pardo Bazán was at the height of her career, she was a very famous woman, but the only thing she needed was to enter the Academy. And we already know that, unfortunately, she did not succeed, although she would have deserved it with all the honors", she added.
Asked about the role of women in history and literature, the author gave her opinion based on her experience: "In 'License to Spy', I spoke of many female spies, some very well known like Mata Hari and others absolutely unknown, who did an impressive job in the secret services from ancient times to the Cold War. History has made many women invisible, but their role was crucial, like that of spies, writers and white widows”.
During her speech, Carmen Posadas addressed one of the lesser-known themes of her novel: the white widows, women who were forgotten after their husbands emigrated to America. “The white widows are women whose husbands went to America with the idea of making a fortune and then reclaiming their family. But many were unlucky, they didn’t get enough money or they fell in love with someone else and started another family”, explained the author. “These women, who depended entirely on the money their husbands sent them, stopped receiving it and became ‘widows of the living’, as Rosalía de Castro called them”. Posadas highlighted the harshness of their fate: “They were women condemned to not being able to rebuild their lives, without resources, often without support from their own families, and some ended up falling into prostitution just to feed their children”. The writer pointed out that this reality, silenced for years, is one of the many stories she rescues in The Mysterious Case of the Titanic Impostor, providing a new perspective on emigration at the beginning of the 20th century.
The presentation by Carmen Posadas was received with a great response from the public. At the end of the event, the Círculo Ecuestre and the Editorial Division of Grupo Planeta announced the authors and the dates planned for the coming months: next March 12, an event with the writer Juan Trejo, and on July 2, with Rosa Ribas.
The reading club of the Círculo Ecuestre and the Editorial Division of Grupo Planeta has the cultural purpose of fostering a passion for literature and critical thinking through shared reading. This exclusive space brings together book lovers in an atmosphere of dialogue and intellectual enrichment, where works of different genres are analyzed and reflection on current issues, history and humanism is encouraged. In addition, it seeks to strengthen ties between authors and readers, promoting the dissemination of knowledge and the exchange of ideas within a select and cultivated community.