On the occasion of his book 'El loco de Dios en el fin del mundo'

A discussion with Javier Cercas

On the occasion of the publication of his book 'El loco de Dios en el fin del mundo'

Participants:
Paco Cerda. Journalist and writer
Cristina García Pascual. Head of Initiatives, Aula de Narrativas

Javier Cercas was born in 1962 in Ibahernando, Cáceres (Spain). He is a professor of Spanish literature at the University of Gerona, Honorary Fellow of University of Oxford and honorary professor of University Diego Portales, of Chile. Some of his novels have been translated into more than 30 languages, such as The motive, The tenant, The Belly of the Whale, Soldiers of Salamis (The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, Grinzane-Cavour Prize, Chilean Critics’ Prize, City of Barcelona Prize, Llibreter Prize, Salambó Prize, among others), The Speed of Light, (Athens Prize for Literature, San Clemente Literary Prize, Fernando Lara Prize, ex aequo), The Anatomy of a Moment (Spanish National Prize for Narrative, Terenci Moix International Award, Mondello Città di Palermo Prize, Jean Moner Prize, Radovan Galonja Prize), Outlaws (Prix Méditérranée Étranger, Correntes d’Escritas Prize, Mandarache Prize), The impostor (Prix du Libre Europeén, Premio Internazionale Isola D’Elba, Premio Internazionale Ceppo di Pistoia, Arzobispo Juan de San Clemente Prize, Taofen Prize for Best Foreign Novel Published in China) Lord of All the Dead, (Prix Malraux), Even the Darkest Night (Premio Planeta and Dagger Prize), Prey for the Shadow and Bluebeard's Castle  (Internazionale NordSud Prize). Furthermore, he has also published various books –A Good While, True Stories, Agamemnon's Truth, Ways to Hide, No callar, The Adventure of Writing Novels– as well as essays, such as The Literary Works of Gonzalo Suárez and The Blind Spot. Moreover, he has also received several essay and journalism awards, such as the Francesco de Sanctis, in Italy, or the Joaquín Romero Murube and the Francisco Cerecedo, in Spain, as well as many awards throughout his career, including the Eñe Prize, in Spain, Prix Ulysse or Prix Diálogo, in France or the Premio Internazionale del Salone del Libro di Torino, Premio Friuladria, Premio Internazionale Città di Vigevano or the Premio Sicilia, all of them in Italy, along with the International Literary Flame Award in Montenegro.

Synopsis 
In May 2023, Javier Cercas was signing books in the Salone Internazionale del Libro in Turin when a Vatican representative approached him with a proposal: they thought of him to accompany Pope Francis and his entourage to Mongolia so that he wrote a book about the trip, the Church, or whatever else he desired. 
It was not a commissioned book, explained Lorenzo Fazzini, who was in charge of the Holy See Publishing House. For the first time ever, the Vatican was going to open his doors to a writer and moreover, giving him freedom of writing and all the necessary facilities to speak and ask to whomever or about whatever he wanted. And they were opening them, precisely, to a professed atheist, anti-clerical and militant secularist.
Still astonished, Cercas wanted to know if that meant that he could have a few minutes alone with the pope. This question instantly became the condition for accepting the unusual proposal.
Three months later, when the hot August was coming to an end, Javier Cercas settles in a small hotel owned by some nuns. Before heading to Mongolia, Fazzini had arranged him some interviews with people from the Pope’s inner circle. They were a Jesuit, who is considered to be the intellectual head of the pope, a poet Cardinal, the theologian in charge of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the editorial director of the Vatican media and several vaticanists.
Jorge Bergoglio is the pope who travels from the Latin America to Rome, with clear objectives: see the world from its margins, to combat clericalism, and to place mercy as the centre of the Church. But he is not only this; he is also a religious man with a contentious past. Some Argentinian Jesuits pictured him as an authoritarian, selfish and manipulative man but, some time afterwards, he is pictured as an archbishop who struggles to help the poor in a crisis-stricken Argentina. What is true in all these versions? Who is really the pope who took his name from Francis of Assisi, the Holy Fool?  His papacy constitutes a revolution within the Church? How does he deal with all the scandals of sexual abuse and corruption, the loss of faithful or the debate for the abolition of celibacy? And why does he travel to Mongolia, a country where there are only one thousand five hundred Catholics and therefore, Christianity is an eccentricity? 
There are countless questions that arise when the doors of the Vatican open, and the vast majority have nothing to do with religion. But if Cercas agrees to travel to Mongolia with Pope Francis is to talk with him about eternal life and the resurrection. In other words, to ask him if his parents will meet again after death and to convey the pope’s answer to his mother, a devout catholic whose life is coming to an end. 
The writer, a non-Holy Fool, begins an extraordinary journey following the Holy Fool until the end of the world, spurred by the mystery of transcendence and the desire for immortality.

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