This fact, which is anecdotal in 2023, could have been dramatic in the case of the characters of ‘Us two in the storm’, the new novel by the Argentine writer that narrates the lives of a dozen characters in the turbulent Buenos Aires of 1975in which guerrillas from the People’s Revolutionary Armymilitants of Montoneros, university professors, businessmen and each other’s family or friends. At that time, an error in an address, a sung quote, a failure in security protocols, could be what separated freedom from confinement, life from death. A reality that, beyond the circumstances and its political implication, is shared by several generations of Argentines.

“The initial and most distant trigger of this novel has to do with a memory of my childhood. The novel is dedicated to my father and that dedication is related to seeing him, one Sunday morning when I was six or seven years old, receiving a phone call. In it he was informed of a horrible tragedy in the family which made him break down and cry. Although I never got to talk to him about the subject because he died shortly after, that moment was one of those images that stay present in your mind and end up becoming a driving force for things that you do later,” explains Sacheri who, before starting to write The two of us in the stormcarried out important research work to understand the functioning of guerrilla organizations, their internal structure, their lexicon and their functioning when, for example, determining the objectives of their operations.

“Despite the time that has passed, the topic that the novel deals with is still very thorny, highly discussed, and generates very conflicting positions in my country. Therefore, it seemed important to me to know in as much detail as possible the functioning of these organizations. Only then could I avoid falling into caricatures or idealizations because, both one thing and the other, seemed to me a lack of respect for those involved,” says Sacheri who, in addition to consulting the extensive bibliography on the subject published in recent decades, He met with former guerrillas and relatives of victims of armed organizations.

The author says he is aware that, despite all this research, “there are people who can get upset. However, while prudence seems to me to be a virtue in life in general, this is not the case when it comes to artistic creation. When one creates it is important to feel free and, in that sense, I believe that the best way to be respectful of such an intricate past is, for example, for the novel to have different paths to follow. Although it is almost all written in third person, since the only first person there is is that of a father who monologues from time to time, the point of view rotates between ten characters different so that the reader has the possibility of empathizing with whoever they want according to their sympathies, their political visions and thus avoid going down the line, which is how we refer here in Argentina to when someone tells you what you have to think.

shared universe

Throughout ‘Us two in the storm’ some of the characters and events that marked Argentina in the 70s appear. For example, María Estela Martínez de Perón, Augustus Timothy Vandor, Jose Lopez Regathe ‘Rodrigazo‘the rural focus in Tucumán, the attack on the Monte Chingolo battalion or the presence in the streets of the Ford Falcon. References that, without being essential to enjoy reading, may be foreign to the Spanish reader.

“I agree that the Spanish reader is going to lack references, in the same way that I am missing them when I read a novel that has some anchor in the recent history of Spain. A few weeks ago I was in Mexico and in Colombia accompanying the release of the book and the same thing happens there too. However, I think that There is a common universe which is the fact that any of our countries faced situations of political violence and revolutionary organizations. Of different kinds, with different objectives, but they thought of violence as a tool of legitimate political action. In any case, our lexicon or our way of speaking Spanish is also different and, although there are expressions that remain somewhat nebulous, it seems to me that it is a complication that enriches,” reflects Eduardo Sacheri, who also explains why in ‘Nosotros two in the storm’ neither the military nor paramilitary groups such as the Triple A waves gangs of the union bureaucracy.

“My novel takes place in 1975. At that time the military was, in any case, a latent threat. However, the armed organizations were then convinced that Isabel Perón’s government could be overthrown. They feel close to achieving that goal and, in fact, the military is not a primary concern for them. Another thing is that the readers and I know what is going to happen next, but that does not mean that it was happening in 1975. The same would happen if I had written a novel set in 2019, just before the coronavirus pandemic. In that case, the characters would demonstrate absolute naivety about the nightmare that was going to come upon them. Something similar happens here.”

Although this new novel shares some of the elements present in other books by Eduardo Sacheri, such as the parent-child relationship that gives rise to the title or the history of recent Argentina, ‘We two in the storm’ is a unique work in which the Argentine author renounces many of his themes for the benefit of the main story.

“In the best of all worlds I would like to think that my novels They have that double condition of belonging to a recognizable universe and, at the same time, being remembered with a certain specificity. Here is the Argentina of the last decades, which continues to impact the present of my country, the links between people, such as parenthood or friendship, and the choice of small characters, because the protagonists are not revolutionary leaders but guerrillas of a foot, ordinary people. What happens is that, in this novel, There is an unusual tragic side in other of my books, because it deals with people who have decided to make life and death decisions. This causes their own daily life to necessarily be impregnated with that almost solemn character and that is one of the reasons why football or humor is not there, because it seemed like a dangerous indulgence to incorporate such light elements.”

Cinema and literature

Divided into four parts according to the seasons of the year and structured in short chapters, ‘Us two in the storm’ It is still, beyond its political and historical content, a kind of thriller that could be adapted to the big screen, as already happened with ‘The Secret of Their Eyes’ or ‘The Night of the Power Plant’, whose scripts were written by Sacheri himself.

“Although I really like the cinematographic side of my career, I feel that the core is books. In fact, When I think of a new story, I think of a book, not a movie. I’m not even considering getting in touch with people in the film world. to propose to them to directly develop a script. For me, writing a novel is complex, demanding, and difficult enough to not take into account problems other than those of the novel itself. I couldn’t think ‘maybe it would be better for me to resolve this in this way to facilitate a future script’. “If I put so many things at stake, I think I would lose the pleasure of what I am writing,” says Sacheri, whose work as a screenwriter has made him more demanding as a viewer.

“My maternal grandmother was a wonderful clothing maker. She didn’t do that, she only did it for the family, but when she saw someone wearing a new garment, the first thing she did was ask them to come closer to touch the fabric and the seams. He wasn’t satisfied with seeing how it looked on you but he needed to feel the seams. Now I realize that, Although I do not lose the pleasure of watching movies, I also need to feel the seams“, acknowledges Sacheri, to whom, before finishing, all that remains is to ask him about the content of that call that marked a before and after in his father’s life. “It has to do with very dear family members who suffered a lot, some of whom are still alive. “I understand that you ask me about it, but it’s better to leave it there, receiving a horrible call announcing a death in the family.”