Family Conclave at the Fair! The true story behind Jorge Fernández Díaz's novel, this Sunday
The 49th Buenos Aires International Book Fair has one of the most special activities of its 2025 program for this Sunday. Those who attend the presentation of the novel El secreto de Marcial , with which writer and journalist Jorge Fernández Díaz won the 2024 Nadal Prize in Spain , will not only participate in an interview, like the ones customary at La Rural, but will also join in an almost private ceremony : that of a novel's life that becomes real and is embodied in people. And everything will have a little Asturian air.
The author has said that at the center of this novel is the figure of his real father: "There is only one mother, but every father is an enigma ," he explained, and for that reason, he decided to solve it: "My father did not have the tools to communicate with me , and his only way, the only sentimental education he left me, was watching some old Hollywood classics together on TV, films that I have since revisited."
Susan and Moe, co-stars of the novel. Actually, Mary, the sister of writer and journalist Jorge Fernández Díaz, and his lifelong friend, Oscar Conde. Photo: courtesy of Jorge Fernández Díaz.
This Sunday 's presentation will explore that connection, filled with cinema and silence, as well as mysteries and questions. To do so, the author will be accompanied by lawyer and journalist Luciano Román, who will conduct an interview . But there will be more than just questions.
Marcial, the protagonist of the book, in Mar del Plata, where a key scene about his secret takes place.
Because Marcial wasn't just the father of the writer and journalist. He was also the father of his sister Mari, who in the novel becomes the character Susan . She isn't the only one who has a fictional role model.
Academic Oscar Conde , a doctor in Literature from the University of Salvador, a professor of classical Greek until 2006 at the University of Buenos Aires, and author of the book Lunfardo. The most comprehensive study ever written on Argentine popular speech , also features in El secreto de Marcial. He plays none other than the character Moe —and a dear friend of the author.
Marcial, the writer's father, serving at the historic ABC bar, on Canning and Córdoba streets.
Because, as Fernández Díaz himself explains, "although the novel is, technically, an 'autofiction,' the characters are real." And in that game of mirrors, doubles, and transformations that literature allows, reality and fiction will take center stage this weekend at 5:30 p.m. in the José Hernández room .
Carmina and Marcial, Fernández Díaz's parents.
Susan and Moe will be there, or Mari and Oscar . The narrator and journalist and writer Jorge Fernández Díaz will be there. And so will the memories of thousands upon thousands of children of immigrants who, like him, like so many others, were loved in silence , raised in sacrifice , accompanied in their demands . A legacy that, although it may seem outdated in times of cryptocurrencies, is still passed down from generation to generation.
And for those who were cradled in the memory of a beloved and distant Spain , the lament of the bagpipes will bring an Asturian melody at the end, which could also be Galician, Leonese, Catalan or Andalusian because it will sound with the nostalgia of that land of their own, to which one always returns even if one has never set foot.
Jorge Fernández Díaz will present his latest book , "The Martial Secret ," winner of the 2024 Nadal Prize, on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. in the José Hernández room at the Book Fair.
Clarin
