Love is one of the most beloved books by Theodor Kallifatides (Molaoi, Greece, 1938). However, it had never before been translated into Spanish or Catalan. Starting September 16, thanks to Galaxia Gutenberg, readers of both languages will also be able to enjoy this contemporary classic that the author published for the first time in Swedish in 1978. “I wrote it many years ago, but it is still very meaningful,” he confesses by phone to La Vanguardia days before this long-awaited publication arrives in bookstores. It is the first time that he has spoken to a Spanish media about the novel. “It is a book that I think ages well because, as far as love is concerned, for better and for worse, human beings have not changed that much, since we are still the same as in the Greek tragedies,” he reflects. The novel follows Laki Sarris, a man about to turn forty, married to Lena and with a son, who falls madly in love with a woman much younger than him, Li. A relationship that will inevitably have dramatic consequences for his life.
Laki wants everything, to keep his marriage with Lena and maintain a passionate relationship with Li. He says he loves them both, but is it possible to maintain something like that without hurting anyone?
Only in an ideal universe, but not in real life, and anyone who says otherwise will end up discovering over the years that this is so. Some understanding can be reached but always, to a greater or lesser extent, someone is going to suffer. Hopefully, just one person, although it is most likely that everyone involved will end up having a bad time. Everyone has something to lose.
Is this an autobiographical story? Were you Laki in the past?
There is always something of me in everything I write. It would be almost impossible not to draw on my own experience to do my job. And, at the same time, I always use that experience as a starting point to turn it into fiction and intersect everything with other things that I imagine. But yes, I only have one life; If I don't write about her, what would I write about?
Laki comes to wonder if Li is a new love or if it is just an opportunity to become another version of himself.
The two things are compatible. In fact, you can't start a relationship without something changing about yourself. Sometimes, you may feel jealous and perhaps it is something you have not felt until now. Or, if you are luckier, you may meet someone who will teach you what true love is and realize that you have never experienced anything like it before.
Although he is attracted to two women and would like to be with both, the protagonist ends up convincing himself that there is only one love and that we classify the types of love to protect ourselves from it.
I agree with him, even though in the last forty years I have had time to change my perspective. But, if anyone has had the opportunity to be truly in love and to experience healthy love, you will know what I mean. Love is much more than simple attraction, fascination or sexual devotion. It is something unique, a feeling that we cannot change. It's as if we wanted to change the shape of the moon, we can't.
Loving means caring. It is one of the great lessons of his novel. Is care a form of love that our time has underestimated?
Of course. You can't love someone and not care for them. So it's not love, even though people insist on calling it that. It's using someone.
His text reflects a lot on words and their ability to hide ambiguities.
Yes, and when I wrote it, I was not so aware that lexicon could become a weapon, not only on a personal level but also on a political level. Today we can see it clearly. In my 88 years of life I have never been in a situation like this before. I lived through the Second World War, the Syrian war, the oppression of the right... but I had never been as aware as now of living through a stage of war preparation as frenetic as the current one. Everything used to cook more slowly, and now it doesn't, and it seems like we don't care. We could also support the entire world population with half the money we spend on buying and selling weapons. However, we prefer conflict. And every conflict begins with the word.
The human being seems not to learn...
Something yes because, otherwise, humans would have already become extinct. At least, that's what I want to think, that, despite the fact that the planet has become strange and murky, most of us understand that a new world war would be a mistake. I admit that I'm not so sure it won't happen, which is why I'm scared and why I said that I think it's the first time I've experienced something like this. If something happened, I think it would be the end.
Are you just as pessimistic on the issue of immigration? Have we learned something? This is one of the great themes of his narrative and in 1978 he made his position clear with this novel.
I'm not clear. I have been following the issue of Ceuta in the newspapers for weeks, for example. Where should the balance between borders and the protection of human rights be? This is the key question. Of course, the second is the most important thing, and it is the obvious thing. But the theory is always easy. The ideal would be to save their lives, that first, and provide tools so that they can save themselves later. It is not an easy situation to deal with, especially with poverty and despair involved. From what I understand, the Spanish government is treating the issue with sensitivity, without violence involved. And this, which may also sound obvious, is not so easy to see, even though we are in the 21st century. It must be clear that emigrating, in its basic sense, is leaving your country because you cannot live there. It is not a synonym for tourism.
What would you say to a young immigrant who feels like they have to choose between the culture of their parents and the country where they live?
Let it adapt. And adapting is not necessarily losing one of the options. You can keep the first one and open yourself to learning new things. It is essential if you want to live in a place. Of course, I believe that adaptation must be reciprocal, and that does not always happen. There are people who prefer to put a blindfold on their eyes and do not accept or tolerate the fact that their country changes and that people from outside come. With arrogance involved, no matter which side it comes from, it is impossible to advance.
Did you encounter that arrogance when you emigrated to Sweden?
Arrogance is always present, but one has to know how to move forward, despite everything, and understand that there is a larger group of people who do good. And see the positive things. I arrived in Sweden and the country opened its doors to me. I studied there and they appointed me as a university professor. I felt I should return the favor and started writing in Swedish. Also because at that time I was convinced that Greek was not a language with which the truth could be told. I was disappointed. Over the years, I returned to my language. Well, now they are both my languages. I have won.
