Karmele Jaio (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1970) has collected twelve stories. He wrote fifteen wounds in 2004 and since then has travelled the way, with the publication of Amaren Eskuak, Tu so weak, Musika airean and that of now Ez naiz ni (Elkar, 2012). In his new work, he has used themes that were not foreign to him before: the relations between men and women, the incommunicable, the disillusionment and love… These texts could be the chronicle of a daily and miserable life, but the author has not hesitated: they are stories, people who arrive at a certain age and live daily.

What happens when you get to the center of life?

The characters in this book, at least, have difficulty recognizing themselves. They've come part of the road, they've come somewhere, and all of a sudden, the doubt is: "Did I want to get here?" Am I the same as before?” In these characters, doubt, emptiness and anxiety predominate. “Time goes by,” they say. They’ve realized… Even when you’re young, you realize that time passes, but when you reach a certain age, you realize that time actually progresses. And then comes the emergency room: to do things.

To do what they haven’t done until then…

Some, to do what they hadn't done until then. Others, to recover the past, to idealize it. But the past cannot be recovered. It's gone, there's no point in going back. The past is part of our life, but it's gone, it's just in memory. What, after all, is life? Take some paths and discard others. These characters have reached a certain age and have remembered the paths that have been left aside. "If I had taken that path?" If I had gone with him?”

When is the “center of life”?

It's not about age, it's about personal experiences. Some will think forty years, but they can be fifty-seven! It is the experience of life that commands, not age. This is marked by the fact that some things have been done. For example, some have early children. And when you realize that children are growing up, you realize that life is also going forward. Then comes the void or can come. In some story you see that. For example, when they see that the family is “destroying” their sons and daughters.

You're always talking about "characters in the book." Am I not at work? Isn't there any age?

Yes, of course. In what is written there is always oneself, not in everything that happens – it would be impossible – but both the characters and the situations are born of oneself, they are in one way or another. After all, it is an atmosphere that is around one, a melody, a concern, a concern…

Why did you direct yourself to the center of life? What has led you to it?

It's hard to answer that. I don't know either. Even when I start writing, I'm not sure what I'm going to write. I start writing stories, I write one, two, three… and when I have half a dozen writings, I begin to realize that there is a theme that repeats itself. So, wanting to give a complete sense of the book, I turn to it, maybe I'm forced to do it. But it's not a decision taken earlier. I started working on the issues I had inside, and when I wrote them, I realized that that topic was inside of me.

Is it important – should it be better, helps – that the book of stories has that whole thing?

I don't know if the whole thing is important, but I think it's good to have an atmosphere. It's a book, it's got a whole, and I think it helps the reader get into an environment. Even though the stories are different, they come from the same atmosphere. When I'm working on a book, I try it, sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't. But I do it without forcing too much. Look at what's happening in music today: there's no record, it's a song, it's a song, it's a piece. In stories, the same thing, everyone has their value, independently. However, if you put that story together with other stories that describe a similar world, the result is better, it has more strength. I say this as a reader!

I'm not reading when I was asked how I was. I, reading at ease, said that the book not only seemed to me to be a story, but a chronicle of the relationships of those who have reached an age.

Partly yes. Much of the stories are those, the day-to-day photo, the portrait of what surrounds you, the theft of characters, things and situations that surround you. Then it is centrifuged and written. Anyway, they're stories, I don't have any doubt, although a lot of them are day-to-day pictures. I picked up what I see.

“Day to day photography,” he said. I do not know to what extent you are aware of the reality of your photos.

I think these stories are a reality. They told me everything. Some people have told me that they are also very dramatic. I, on the other hand, tell you that they are very real and everyday. These characters come to the center of life, realize that life is not easy, that it's a struggle. When you reach the center of life many things have happened, you have more and more weight in your backpack, a stone here, a stone there… many stones in the end. No, life is not an easy thing, it's a struggle at all levels. Those who have a lot of money and no work, all of them live in that struggle, a lot of misery. The characters in the book show that living is, after all, facing something every day.

Where have you learned that?

Life itself proves it...

“The best teacher we have is life,” a poem by Mikel Arrangi.

Life teaches you, your life, that of your friends, that of others… it also teaches you the fiction, what you have read, the film you have seen. It all shows you.

What has changed Fifteen wounds from that first Karmele Jaio to this one?

The years have passed, I too have more stones on my back! Ha, ha, ha… That is very important when it comes to writing. You've accumulated more experiences, more things have happened to you, and that's noticeable. As for writing, I made myself with fifteen wounds, published that first job, and now it's not this me, and there are changes. It is especially the change that has occurred in this book, as far as the work of stories is concerned. Now I have the longest stories, before I was in a hurry to finish the stories. I have now let the story go by itself, I have given you time to say whatever I mean.

You said you had been in a mood when you introduced the book.

A touch of humor. There was none of that on the previous occasions, nor on the shield. Now I got out with more enthusiasm. It's going to be age! In different situations, you have two options: crying or laughing. This time I prefer to laugh, laugh at myself, around me, at people of my same age…

How about the criticism?

Sometimes good, sometimes bad. It's the work of the critic. Ours, writing, not valuing their work.

And when the male starts going up and the female starts going down?

I think we have to take many steps. In all the conversations I have had, I have been asked or talked about: “Most of your characters are female.” That is still striking! On the other hand, no one tells the man: “Most of your characters are male.” The male still seems neutral. The female, on the other hand, marks the characteristic that needs to be. Different. It's going to take years, or I don't know how long, for that epicenter to move.

What's more, if many critics are not judging the writer's work from their center.

You can't criticize a book when you're reading that work looking for something concrete. When you haven't found what you want, criticize. That cannot be done.

I'd like to bring a character's quote: "Ane doesn't have a job, she does a lot of work here and there as a writer. Series, ads, documentaries. The producer has to say yes to everything she asks for, because the situation is not there to start rejecting. She works at home. ‘Writing a lot of shit – you know it – busy.’” This is the reality and not just the character.

Ha, ha, ha… In that case, you have to write a lot, fulfill a lot of orders, in order to write whatever you want. Whoever wants to be a writer has to do everything, he has to be a speaker, a writer, a writer, teaches this and that in schools... That does not facilitate the work of those who want to write.

We will have to take into account, then, what the writer Robert Laxalt said. Writing and writing, at least you learn how to write fast.

I also did journalism, I was in sports, and that also taught me how to write fast. But writing stories takes longer. Many times we don't have time! You have to steal to write. You don't have time to write, a certain time. Now a while ago, then another, try to finish a story while you look at the kid in the park… It’s not the way. In the end it is a miracle to get the story out!

Write, return your jobs and Amaren eskuak becomes a movie. Oh my God!

Of course, that also gives joy. I have a great expectation. It will be released this year, it is already done. I haven't seen it yet, but it's very soon the première, and we'll see. I saw the script, I made some recommendations to Mireia [Gabilondo], but for me it is very difficult to see in the images what is written in the script. I have no experience.