Deshojando alcachofas (2005) - Esther Bendahan

Synopsis

“I wanted my mother to read what I wrote and she died without being able to see what the pages of this novel hide. “Deshojando alcachofas” (Seix Barral) is a tribute to friendship, a vital journey of three women who converge in a world in which they have to rethink about the place they should occupy”. Esther Bendahan (Tetuan, 1964) narrates in her first novel, all her previous works had been carried out in collaboration with other authors, a story of women that allows her to reflect on identity and to claim what is different. The title of the novel contains, according to Bendahan, "a metaphor for life, an adventure in which we are all foreigners, since it is necessary to peel away several layers to finally reach the heart, the interior, and find one's true identity." Bendahan, deputy director of the Shalom program on TV2, tried with “Deshojando alcachofas” to “start a dialogue, which turned out to be impossible, with my mother so that she would understand my perceptions about the world, art, sex and friendship. Everything I wanted her to know is in my writings, between the pages of the book”, as she confesses. In the novel written by this woman of Sephardic origin there is no lack of autobiographical references. Teli, one of the protagonists, is a painter and must face her mother's illness (as happened to Bendaham), while trying to help her best friend, Sara, to find out if her husband is cheating on her, all of this integrated into an emotional atmosphere where small objects come to life. Between the two friends another woman crosses paths, Daniris, who recently arrived from Santo Domingo, finds herself in the middle of the landscape of a Madrid that hides the strange disappearance of a cousin of hers. “The characters are created with brushstrokes of elements, situations and aspects of the character of women who have passed through my life, some of them very close to me. There is also mystery in it because my mother, who was a reader of black novels, had to hook her through some situation that involved her” says the writer.

(SOURCE: El País)

Interview: Benarroch, Mois. “Entrevista con Esther Bendahan (2005)”.