Scottish writer, theatre actor and Malta resident LIZZIE ELDRIDGE speaks about her novel Duende which was published internationally last year.
What is your relationship with Malta?
I’ve lived here for over five years and I was first introduced to the country by my friend Toni Attard. He brought me over to work on a devised theatre production in 2005 and I kept coming back until, eventually, I stayed…
Tell us about your book.
Duende is set in Spain, 1900-1936, and follows the lives of two men – an artist and a philosopher – in the run-up to the Civil War. Although it’s a fictional story, Duende encompasses the complex and tragic landscape of Spain at that time, a period in which Fascism, Communism and Anarchism were fighting for control right across Europe. Alongside this came an explosion of energy in terms of artistic and philosophical ideas, the urgency of these corresponding with the life-death battles happening all around. In fact, some real-life characters appear in my novel: Salvador Dalí, Ortega y Gasset, and, most significantly, Lorca. My two main characters, Nayo and José, are struggling to make sense of their lives during a period of cataclysmic change. And at the heart of this is their love for each other, a love which is continually under threat.
What made you decide to write it?
A surreal trip to Madrid in 2009 when I found myself unexpectedly alone and struggling to communicate with basic Italian, a pocket Spanish dictionary and lots of gestures. It was a really frightening time as the friend I was meant to be staying with inexplicably disappeared four and a half hours after my arrival. On my final day, I literally bumped into Lorca’s statue. I’ve loved Lorca since I was 17 but hadn’t realised I’d been living in the same street as his statue until my final day there. I came back to Malta, knowing I had to do something with what I’d experienced in Madrid but not knowing what. Two weeks after I returned, excavation work began in Granada to try and recover the remains of Lorca’s body. He was shot dead by fascists in the early days of the Civil War and his body dumped in a mass grave. Media coverage likened the attempt to find Lorca’s body to laying Spanish ghosts to rest. Somehow or other, this was the trigger for Duende.
How hard was the writing process?
It was bliss. The more research I did into Spain – I was pretty much a novice – the more connections I found between my fiction and the actual history. There were so many points of synchronicity. The final chapter was difficult to write because, by then, I was in love with my characters so the final chapter was very difficult to write.
What are your expectations for it?
I don’t have any expectations. I just want people to read it and connect with it.
Do you make a living from your writing?
No. In the age of self-publishing and Amazon, there are a hundred million books for people to choose from. The fact I’ve made any money at all from my novel is quite incredible to me. I don’t write vampire stories or Fifty Shades of erotic fiction so I’m not expecting to retire on my royalties!
What inspires you as a writer?
I’ve always written since I was a little girl and I’ve always had a need to write. Inspiration comes from the strangest places. Anything can provoke it – a word, an image, a colour or texture, a poem, a passage in a novel, a newspaper article, a painting. But usually ideas happen when you’re not forcing them to appear. Most of my ‘brainwaves’ occur at the gym!
What was your first work?
I wrote a novel called Vandalism which was finished about nine years ago. After a couple of rejections from publishers, I got a bit disillusioned. I love the writing process but I’m not thick-skinned enough to deal with the words ‘Thanks but no thanks!’ Some famous writers initially received over a 100 rejections which, now I think about it, must be why I’m not famous!
What has been the feedback to Duende?
I’ve had some lovely feedback (six 5-star reviews on Amazon) with one critic describing Duende as ‘one of the great love stories in literature’. There was also a lovely coincidence last summer. A Slovenian man was visiting a friend of mine in Malta and just happened to mention a book he was reading called Duende…The chances of that happening are miniscule… I’ve also had some negative responses. My favourite to date is: ‘Reading about alternative lifestyles is not interesting to me.’ My characters are gay, living in a fiercely repressive country that’s escalating towards Civil War – not exactly eco-friendly hippies munching away on home-grown organic food… But I liked this critical contribution because it made me laugh out loud!
Do you feel your works in some way contribute to the moral or character development of those who read them?
I didn’t consciously decide to create characters or a story which would impact on the reader in any kind of moral way. Having said that, there are some themes in this novel which I imagine will leave a strong impression on the reader. For example, the difficulties of being homosexual in a society where this had to be hidden; the artistic and philosophical debates taking Europe by storm in the early 20th century; the painful and bloody divisions between political and religious factions in Spain; the awful predictability (with hindsight) of Spain’s descent into Civil War. Duende encompasses a lot of ‘big’ themes, universal concerns, and this, coupled with the love story at its core, will hopefully move and speak to the reader in significant ways.
Are there any taboos you won’t deal with in your books?
I’m not sure I know what taboos are. There are certain subjects I wouldn’t feel comfortable tackling. You have to enter into the mind of a character to create a sense of credibility and there are certain ways of thinking which I’d rather not engage with.
Do you have an opinion on the developments in the reading world, such as ‘tablet’ reading formats replacing books?
I’ve got a Kindle and it’s great in terms of being a portable library but I still prefer the smell and touch of ‘real’ books. E-readers are too clinical for me and I also like book covers, something you lose in electronic format. Often, when I’m reading an e-book, I don’t even remember the author’s name.
Any advice for aspiring novelists and writers?
If you have a compulsion to write then write. Write because you need to and don’t be driven by trends. Why jump on the bandwagon?
What are your plans for the future?
I’m currently working on my second novel, Love at the end without dawn. Although the story has certain connections with Duende, it’s written to be read on its own. It’s about a woman – half-Maltese, half-Spanish – whose work as a translator sees her stumble across a second-hand book in Barcelona. This discovery is the start of her journey into the world of Cuban politics, strange religious practices and the criminal underworld of Madrid.
Where can readers purchase your book from?
Amazon is the main outlet but it’s available on a range of other sites, too: barnesandnoble.com, alibris.com, e-Bay, and so on. You can buy it either as a paperback or in electronic format.
DETAILS: Lizzie Eldridge
Age: 45
Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland
Lives in: il-Gzira
Family: Mum to a beautiful daughter
Career: University Lecturer in Theatre; Writer
Hobbies: My life and work intersect
Favourite literary genre: Any fiction that’s well-written
Favourite authors: Gabriel García Marquez, Federico García Lorca, Italo Calvino…
Favourite book: If nobody speaks of remarkable things by Jon McGregor
Favourite film: Bad Education (Almodóvar)
Favourite music: Nick Cave among others
Favourite trip: New York in 2004
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (1898 –1936) was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. This was an influential group of poets that arose in Spanish literary circles between 1923 and 1927, essentially out of a shared desire to experience and work with avant-garde forms of art and poetry. Their first formal meeting took place in Seville in 1927 to mark the 300th anniversary of the death of the baroque poet Luis de Góngora. Writers and intellectuals celebrated an homage in the Ateneo de Sevilla, which retrospectively became the foundational act of the movement. García Lorca was killed by Nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. In 2008, a Spanish judge opened an investigation into his death. The García Lorca family eventually dropped objections to the excavation of a potential gravesite near Alfacar. However, no human remains were found.