Diario Página/12, Argentina

LITERATURE › ANDREA FERRARI AND HIS NEW BOOK, THE SPEED OF MUSIC

"Many times you see an idealized portrait of

journalism"
The author of the award-winning The Flowers Complot and The Way of Sherlock creates a
captivating police thriller that takes place with a newsroom as the main setting, which also allows
her to seek “a more realistic look” at the media.

By Karina Micheletto

Sol Linares grew up in the newsroom of a newspaper, her father is the head of that newsroom
and her mother died when she was a girl, in a confusing shooting about which she has not been
able to know much. She is a teenager similar to many and different from many: lonely, somewhat
cynical, she has no friends her age, she gets along better with older people, like that boy for whom
she begins to feel something that she cannot clearly define. Intelligent and a reader, she also wants
to be a journalist, although her father does not agree with the idea. Without looking for it, he will
begin to unravel a story in which there is a murdered paparazzo and a missing pop idol, among
other ingredients. Sol Linares is the protagonist of The Speed of Music, the new novel by Andrea
Ferrari, in which the author displays her ability to build a captivating story that, from the detective
story, spills over into other genres as the plot and the characters, not at all linear or simplified.

Edited by Alfaguara, The Speed of Music is a novel whose recipients could fall within a young
audience (the J of the LIJ, that Children's and Youth Literature that has its own section in
bookstores) but, as happens with any good work, , also covers other ages. And it is also the first
book in a series that starts from Sol de noche, the blog from which Sol ends up unraveling this
police case and others, like the one that Ferrari is already writing to publish next year. “The idea
with this series is that some plot threads are resolved in each book – which specifically refers to the
police 'case' – and others are continued. In this first book the enigma generated by the death of a
photographer who covered the visit of the pop singer begins and ends. But other threads, such as
the intrigue surrounding what happened to Sol's mother, continue in the following books. Also that
of the relationships that the protagonist establishes with other characters,” details the author.

In addition to being a writer, Ferrari is a journalist: she worked on this newspaper for more than
fifteen years. It was by writing a story for his daughter – and then another, and another, and then a
novel, as he recounts in his “unofficial biography” – that he opened a path that would continue in
titles such as The Rebellion of Words, It's Not Easy be Watson, Don't Tell Me Bond, or the most
recent Stowaway Night, Chimpanzees Look in the Eyes and Zoom. There was also an initiatory
award that marked this new profession, the prestigious Barco de Vapor de España for El complot
de Las Flores, in 2003, which would be followed by the Jaén Prize for Juvenile Fiction for El Camino
de Sherlock.

–How much of that daily reality that you lived in your years as a journalist did you take for
the story of The Speed of Music and how much did you modify or leave aside?

–I took a lot from my own experience, of course, to paint the daily life of a newspaper and the real
life of journalists. The diary of the novel is not the portrait of a particular medium, but rather a
fictional one, adapted to the needs of the plot. But of course I used the memory of true situations
and even aspects of people who crossed my path to give substance to the story. That's what's so
good about writing about an environment that you know well. The naturalness that in other stories is
achieved, if at all, by dint of prior research, in these cases it flows alone, from flashes of memory,
scenes that come back to mind as the plot progresses. I don't think I've left anything out on
purpose, but I'm still thinking of new aspects to talk about for the books that will continue the series.

–And what would you say to your daughter if she told her that she wanted to be a
journalist, as happens with Sol and her father, who doesn't want to know anything about it?

–If that had happened (my daughter already opted for a very different professional path), I would
not have had any objections, quite the opposite. In my experience, journalistic work was attractive,
varied, challenging. A good time of my life. Sol's father's doubts in the novel have to do with
something else, especially with what happened to his wife, which it is not advisable to advance.

–Beyond this story, how much or what of the journalist's job is put into play in the writer's
job?

–In my case, quite a bit. I think I still have a journalistic perspective when I approach a topic. In
fact, some of my books were born from news. The Night of the Stowaway, for example, inspired by
the case of African teenagers who arrived in the country hidden on a boat. Or Chimpanzees Look in
the Eyes, which arose after learning about a real zoo program that was widely circulated in the
media. And then there are the journalistic tools that I continue to use in the pre-writing stage, that of
going with a notepad in hand to look for stories to use them as story triggers.

–Sol, and also his father, have a very acidic vision of journalism. There are no heroes or
stars here, although there are passions and vocations at stake. What did you want to tell
about the job?

–I wanted to propose a realistic look. I get tired of seeing in cinema, television, and sometimes
also in literature, the idealized portrait of journalism. There is a heroic image of the journalist who
selflessly seeks the truth against all odds. The reality is a little more nuanced. And yes, there is the
passion, the serious research work, the excitement of the scoop. But there is also a lack of
scruples, the invasion of people's private lives, the laziness in checking information, the distortion of
facts to adapt them to one's own needs. Things are mixed. I'm more interested in grays than blacks
and whites.

–The topic of the construction of the news also appears: what happens when there is
nothing to tell, the way in which one topic displaces another, the treatment of the scoop. Did
this arise as a natural consequence of the story or did you expressly seek to address this
issue?

–It is not that I have set out to write a thesis on current journalism. What rules is the story, which
has its own rhythm, the rhythm of a police officer. But I think that since the story takes place in a
media, it is enriched by showing how it works. For example, how a news story is constructed. Not
only in a newspaper, but also in other media. Teenagers today may not read newspapers, but they
are exposed to the constant information bombardment of television and social networks. I think it's
interesting to think about how news arises, how the medium's own agenda, the journalist's interests,
relationships, the need to "inflate" a minor event because nothing is happening...
 –You chose to include a pop idol, and the story also gets into the fans who idolize him.
How did you build these characters, who in the end are very lovable?

–When I decided that the case that Sol faces revolved around a young pop singer, the type that
generates adolescent fanaticism, I began to read material and watch videos of groups of this style,
a somewhat toxic experience, which I would not recommend. Then I went on to read about fans,
something much more interesting, since one encounters personal searches, that fragile thing of the
teenager who is struggling in search of his identity. The issue of fans has many aspects. It is not
that it is new, but after the explosion of the Internet and social networks the phenomenon took on
another dimension: today the kid who is passionate about something, be it music, comics, games, is
constantly online with others with the same interests in remote parts. of the world and connections
are quickly generated. It is also interesting to see how certain groups – record companies, for
example, or producers – use this fanaticism for their own benefit.

–How did you present the story? Like a detective story, an adventure novel, a story about
an atypical teenager? Because it's a little bit of all that...

–I initially thought of a police genre book and more specifically the police-journalistic subgenre.
But as a detective reader, I like that a novel does not remain a mere “case”, that there is an
exploration of the context – in this case, the journalistic medium – and a deepening of the
characters. In that sense, I consider this series as a story of initiation, where the protagonist goes
from adolescent to adult, facing disappointments, entering the world of work, emotional
relationships...

–And have you already received any feedback from your readers?

–It's still very early. The first reactions had to do with readers of previous books. I have another
police series, started with The Way of Sherlock and aimed at kids a little younger than this one.
Those books brought me touchingly loyal and communicative readers, many of whom asked for the
series to continue. Maybe then Night Sun has emerged thinking about them, who have grown up
and want more.

(April 19, 2015)

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

The speed of music: the beginning of a saga that will make people talk
 Review of the novel and interview with its author, Andrea Ferrari

By Mario Méndez—

Andrea Ferrari

In recent years I have been lucky enough to receive, fresh from her own hands, each new book by
Andrea Ferrari. Thus, I read a string of excellent novels, all of them award-winning: The Night of the
Stowaway, Zoom, The Chimpanzees Look in the Eyes: the first two obtained a Featured Award
from ALIJA; Zoom was also one of the twelve LIJ works from Latin America that received the Cuatro
Gatos Foundation Award, and Los chimpancés miran a los ojos was among the twenty finalists.
Perhaps the reader is wondering what so many awards mean (and we have not yet told the
hypothetical reader, who perhaps does not know, that Andrea Ferrari won the Barco de Vapor Prize
from Spain, in 2003, for El complot de Las Flores , and in 2007 the Jaén Prize for Young People's
Fiction, for El Camino de Sherlock). The reader in question, then, will answer (because I imagine he
is a perceptive reader) that these awards mean that Andrea Ferrari writes very well, that she is an
excellent writer. And you won't be wrong one bit.

A week ago I received, again from Andrea (I have that privilege), her latest novel, The Speed of
Music , the first installment of a youth police saga titled, like the blog created by the protagonist of
the story, Sol de Noche . And again I read avidly and gladly, because, without a doubt, the novel is
excellent.

Sol is an atypical teenager, daughter of the chief editor of a newspaper and a photographer who
was murdered in a shootout between police and criminals, when the protagonist was barely two
years old. Sol, who wants to be a journalist, grew up running between desks in an editorial office.
And it is not chance, but her spirit as a budding journalist, that puts her in front of a corpse, "her first
death." From that meeting, Sol, from the anonymity that his blog gives him, and even before starting
his degree in Communication, begins his journalistic career. In these first steps he will face the
possibility of a romance, the data of the past, which the father has kept fresh, the first triumphs of
the job, along with the first disappointments, the internals of the diary, the vanities, the bad ones.
humors, solidarity and selfishness of colleagues, and even another anonymous blogger who
researches with her. And the novel, with the case elucidated (of course, I will not say anything about
it, except that it is captivating), leaves the saga open. About the sources he has taken, about the
craft of writing detective stories, about how he has managed to think of a saga together with a
novel, I decided to talk to my friend Andrea Ferrari. Below is what we talked about.

—It is known, Andrea, that in addition to being a novelist, you are (or were you? Are you
stopping being one?) journalist. Tell us where that clear knowledge of writing a diary comes
from, which you had already used in The Man Who Wanted to Remember . What did you
decide to take from your experience in a medium? What have you left aside?

—Yes, I was a journalist for many years, many of them in a newspaper. I was attracted by the
idea of using a newsroom again as the setting for a novel, getting deeper into how the media works.
I see that in many fictions—novels, series, movies—journalists appear as pristine, heroic beings,
something like champions of justice. I am interested in showing them in a more realistic way, with
their great moments and their pettiness, their internalities, their most human face. And talk about
how a news story is constructed, how one's own interests, needs, even chance intervene.
 —The protagonist, the daughter of journalists, is an atypical teenager. Is there a familiar
source in the construction of the character? I imagine several winks at your journalist
husband... am I right?

—My house was the home of journalists for a long time and, of course, there are everyday issues
taken from my experience: starting the day with news for breakfast, schedules that go against the
grain of the rest of the world, current events as a permanent topic of conversation in the table. But
it's only superficial. The truth is that the characters have nothing to do with my family. It's pure
fiction.

—With The Way of Sherlock , I suspect, you did not previously have the idea of a saga.
With Sol de Noche it is very clear that yes. How do you plan a novel that, you know, has to
leave its sequel "stinging"?

—It's true, when I wrote The Way of Sherlock I didn't know that it would have a sequel, I was
deciding the evolution of the characters as I went along. The case of "Sun at night" is different, I
planned it as a series. I proposed that each novel have a theme, or a case, that begins and ends
there: that is, that there is a closure in each one. But at the same time, in other aspects the intrigue
remains open: regarding Sol's story, the doubts surrounding her mother's death and that enigmatic
character who helps her on the blog. I think there has to be a balance between the threads that
close and those that remain open to the future. I am betting, in this sense, on the reader's loyalty
and patience, trusting that this intrigue will sustain their interest until the end.

—Have you already started, or at least thought about, the second installment of the saga?
Will it happen in England?

—The second book is quite advanced. It begins in England, with Sol's trip, but then the action
returns to Buenos Aires.

—I would like to ask you several more things, about what you are keeping up your sleeve.
But since it's not appropriate to "spoil," I'll leave it open: what do you want to tell us, the
readers who are already waiting for the second part, about what's to come? Or do you not
want to tell us anything?

—I hate being told too much about a plot I'm going to read, so I wouldn't do that to my readers.
What you can expect in the parts to come is a growth of Sol in every sense. Not only in age, but in
experience, in the way he stands as a journalist, in his view of the world, in his emotional ties. In
that sense it is a coming-of-age story, a saga in which the central character will go from teenager to
young adult.

—Finally, I am sure that it will be a successful novel. I wonder how you see the possible
entry of The Speed of Music into schools. What do you think will seduce teachers, first, and
young readers, later?

—The truth is that I don't know how teachers think, but I would say that the issue of the media is a
very interesting topic to discuss today. Here I tried to talk not only about a newspaper but about the
way of reporting in journalism today, about television, about blogs, about social networks. We all
spend a good part of the day in front of a screen and I think that the possibility of questioning what
we see, what they show us and how we interpret it opens up new perspectives for us. As for
teenage readers, I think that crime as a genre connects very well with them. The police officer asks
for an active reader, who wants to anticipate, connect the dots, guess, and teenagers enjoy that
place.

Diario Página/12, Argentina

INTERVIEW WITH WRITER ANDREA FERRARI

"Youth literature begins to push its own limits"

In The Noise of Success, the third part of the Sol de noche police saga, the author proposes a
story crossed by intrigue and suspense, which also expresses a lucid look at the current dynamics
of the media.

By Karina Micheletto

A police saga captivated young readers, but also older ones, for some time now: Sol de noche,
which began with The Speed of Music, continued with The Marks of Lies, and recently culminated
with The Noise of the success, planted a story capable of stretching the threads of intrigue and
suspense in multiple directions, but also of tenseing them with very plausible and current characters
and situations. But also its author, Andrea Ferrari, opened with this trilogy edited by loqueleo,
implicit reflections on, for example, the media and its dynamics.

There is the way in which the written news is constructed, because Sol Linares, the protagonist of
the saga, grew up among the corridors of a newspaper, where her father is editor-in-chief, and while
she discovers different cases book by book on her blog – which is called, like the saga, Sol de
noche–, ends up earning a place as an intern there. And there are also the audiovisual media, with
their need for scoops, in the previous books, and in the last, with what a format like that of the
reality show means in times that the author defines as “the era of exaltation of the self.”

It all begins when a woman dies live, in front of the cameras, in the middle of a reality show. It is a
particular reality show: the idea is that the participants stay awake, no matter what. He who falls
asleep loses. This chilling format is not only plausible but is inspired by life itself, because, the
author says in dialogue with PageI12, something like this has already been done in Great Britain.
The truth is that here it gives rise to a police enigma that Sol Linares will solve, while other deep
threads in the plot are resolved: that of her own story, with the death of her mother when she was
very young. That of a mysterious cybernetic assistant who gives him very precise clues to solve the
cases. That of a tender love story. That of the relationship with a loving father but not always willing
to see his daughter grow up.

“The idea from the beginning was a saga in three parts, in which some threads of the plot were
resolved in each book and others were extended to the next,” says Ferrari about the structure that
was proposed, and which closes The noise of success . “On the one hand, I wanted a stand-alone
crime story that opened and closed with each volume and left the reader satisfied with the
resolution. But I also wanted a protagonist who would grow throughout the series, develop that
transition towards adulthood that Sol experiences, in his emotional relationships, in his work and in
his search for the truth about his mother's death. That was what I kept from solving in the last book:
the mystery around the mother. And also the identity of AL Timón, the character who helps her from
anonymity,” he explains.

–As readers it is easy to get attached to a character like Sol. Did the same thing happen to
you while writing the ending?

–And yes, it is difficult to say goodbye to the characters that have been growing within you over
three books. One ends up feeling familiar, part of one's own world. But it is also good to close a
project and open up to the next.

–It has been implicitly raising the issue of the media and its dynamics with this saga, and
now a reality show appears. What did you want to show in that sense?

–I was interested in talking about how we permanently receive and digest information. On the one
hand, how a news story is constructed, what interests are involved, what makes a media outlet
keep a story on the front page for days or make it disappear in a flash. But I was also interested in
thinking about that avalanche of indiscriminate information that floods us every day from screens
and social networks: how we process it, how we position ourselves in the face of this tendency
towards permanent personal exhibition. I think that the reality show, which I used as the setting for
the police story in the last book, is also a mark of this era of exaltation of the self, of instant fame, of
the desperate search for success. And to capture the audience the proposals are increasingly
extreme and absurd. The one I describe in the book – a reality show where people are not allowed
to sleep – is not my invention, but was made in Great Britain. The show was called Shattered,
something like Destroyed.

–What feedback did you have with the previous books, what provoked the character of Sol
Linares and his story so far?

–The teenagers I had the opportunity to chat with were very hooked on the police plot, with the
open intrigues. And especially with the enigmatic character, ALTimón: before this last book came
out I heard all kinds of speculation about who he was. A reader was sure that it would be Francisco,
the protagonist of the series The New Sherlock, which I wrote a few years ago. A fun idea, which I
had even evaluated before starting, but it is not like that. The other topic that I was asked a lot about
was how the relationship between Sol and Tatú was going to progress. Romance, especially a first
romance, carries a lot of weight for teenagers. In this case there are also other elements, such as
the age difference –Tatú is five years older than Sol–, the objections of Sol's father, his own
insecurities.

–The protagonist, a young teenager, among many other things, experiences her sexual
initiation. How did you want to present the topic, taking into account that you are addressing
young readers?

–It seemed to me that in an emotional relationship for an eighteen-year-old girl, sex had to be
something normal. But it is true that the topic remains taboo in youth literature. I didn't want to make
it a central axis – at that point in the series the knots go elsewhere – but rather to show it naturally,
as another part of the relationship.

–I had already worked on the police genre, with that fascination caused by following clues
and deductions, risking hypotheses. What do you find special about the genre, why are you
interested?
 –I was a police reader since I was little. I really like the handling of suspense, the tension typical of
the genre when it is well carried out. As an author, I am attracted by the challenge of putting
together that kind of machinery that is a police crime, where all the gears have to fit well for it to
work: throwing in data so that the reader can generate their own hypotheses and at the same time
others that mislead them.

–Is that how you worked on Sol de noche?

–Yes, but in this case, being a saga, I had some extra difficulties, since I had to deal with what
has already been said. Because in a police story, as new ideas for the resolution appear, one
usually changes things already written so that everything fits. But here I had to stick to what was
published in the previous books, which added something more to the challenge.

–He says that it is good to close a project to open up to the next. Have you already worked
on something?

–I am writing for the first time a “four-handed” novel with Martín Blasco. We each take a character:
mine is a girl from a Chinese family and his is a guy who steals from trains. The stories of both run
parallel and from time to time they intersect. I am finding it an extremely stimulating job. Although
we start from a defined plot between the two, one never knows exactly what the other is going to
write until receiving the chapter, and that triggers new ideas.

–How would you evaluate the general panorama of the field of children's and youth
literature in the past year? Which milestones, moments, issues were auspicious and which
were negative?

–It was a difficult year, as it was for the country and particularly for the cultural area, with many
plans deactivated. In the LIJ field, the absence of official purchases was strongly felt, a policy that
had greatly energized the sector. In addition, the National Reading Plan was dismantled, which
distributed books, promoted author visits and produced its own publications in non-commercial
areas, such as poetry or texts in the languages of the native peoples. But it must also be said that
the Argentine LIJ has been showing enormous strength and creativity in recent years.

–How do you notice it, for example?

–There are a number of authors who stand out here and abroad, as seen in international awards.
Those for poetry that Laura Escudero and Cecilia Pisos recently won in Mexico, for example. It is
also interesting how youth literature begins to push its own limits and presents more daring
proposals that gain space in school reading, as happened with recent novels by Paula Bombara,
Inés Garland or Martín Blasco. And I would also highlight the reissue of out-of-print titles, such as
some by Graciela Montes, a fundamental author.

(February 12, 2017)