Espido Freire defends that there is life for the writer outside of literature

"The friends are accepted as they are," says the Spanish writer about a complex and misunderstood historical character who speaks in the first person in his novel.

Winner in 1999, with only 25 years of the Planeta Award with "Frozen Peaches", Freire emphasizes that this award was a "great opportunity" that gave her "visibility", which she has learned to maintain not only with her books.

From 2006 to 2016 he had a creation and promotion of cultural content that closed for "exhaustion" and, in addition to writing, teaches and is a columnist for various media.

"Telling stories in all formats and reaching a varied audience with them," "not necessarily the most elitist or the most popular," remains, however, what Espido Freire is most interested in, which has 90,000 followers in his account of Instagram.

In addition to its official website, the writer from Bilbao has a blog, "Inside the Labyrinth", because, as it is written there, "a life can not be summarized with work, not even in interviews or in a handful of photos".

In her blog, María Laura Espido Freire, her full name, includes comments on books she likes, trips and other topics and also photo reports in which she appears perfectly dressed, combed and made up accompanied by information about the brands of the clothes she wears put.

Some of those brands pay for it, he says.

When asked if she is not afraid of being criticized or that her literature is disparaged by it, she points out that if she took into account what others think about what is expected of a writer, she would not have gone very far.

"There is more life" apart from writing, emphasizes Espido Freire, who declares herself an admirer of how the French intellectual world is capable of mixing high and low culture, something -he says- that does not happen in Spain, where neither "can you speak of culture and money ".

The author of novels such as "Nos waits for the night", poems such as "Aland la blanca" and essays such as "Mileuristas: cuerpo, alma y mente de la generacion de los 1.000 euros" stress that thanks to her blog she leaves her "zone" of comfort ", is forced to" work the audiovisual "and his face is known.

As someone who has "a great faith in disclosure," Espido Freire thinks that social networks and the internet help to win readers among the youngest, something to which he dedicates "60 or 70 annual meetings".

The writer considers "deeply undemocratic" that any television presenter or celebrity can write a book but that does not look the same way that a writer can enter different fields to literature like fashion.

"I know what's behind (the fashion), my mother was a dressmaker," says Espido Freire, who also regrets that the Spanish cultural fabric is not strong enough for "a person who is not previously rich to hold" in that world.

On "Call me Alejandra", she says that ever since she was a girl she saw a photograph of the last Tsarina, she was attracted to her, from which she points out that she was not "stupid" but she saw everything through deforming glasses, because she was isolated from the reality.

In his opinion, it is easy to say a posteriori how the Russian royal family, who ended up being shot in Yekaterinburg, could not see the one that was coming, because now "they have all the data in their hands".

"What would happen if we were judged with that severity within 50 or 100 years? If we were judged by our ethical responsibility as an individual and as a society?" Says the writer.