Since 2021, 3,039 cases of bullying have been dealt with in Catalonia alone. These are data from the Department of Education of the Generalitat that was announced at the end of last year in a kind of balance on the protocols that have been implemented in the classrooms for some time and that, based on the figures, seem insufficient. But the figures also speak of a significant fact: that there are many more cases of bullying that are reported and that the “it’s just kid stuff” is harder to justify.
Literature has contributed decisively to making this topic visible in classrooms and, precisely, one of the most read works in recent years among young high school students has just turned six years old. This is Invisible, by Eloy Moreno (Castellón de la Plana, 1976), a title that is required or recommended reading in more than 400 Spanish institutes and has sold more than 500,000 copies, in addition to a long list of translations to 18 languages. A literary boom that will continue after six years. The author tells us that he has worked on the plot of some of the characters in Invisible in a book that will come out in September, but not as a second part. More like a spin-off, to focus this time on social networks and its influence on adolescence.
“I wrote it with fear, because of the subject matter, because it is not kind at all and it is also not autobiographical. I have never suffered harassment, therefore it was a story that was not inside me,” Eloy Moreno tells us, still surprised today by the impact that his work has had and continues to have. But even if it was not a story experienced in the first person, it was not foreign to him. “Suddenly, one day, a friend of mine tells me her story, a very hard story from when she was little. She tells me, crying, that she suffered bullying for two years and what shocked me the most is that 25 years had passed since that time. And she kept crying. There I realized that bullying is not just a child thing: you keep it up your entire life.”
Thus is born Invisible, the story of a 12-year-old, studious boy, who one day utters a “no” that will unleash his own personal hell. During a difficult math test, he receives a tap on the back from the student sitting behind him. His name is MM, a repeater and one of the troublesome kids in the class. His refusal begins a series of mistreatment, at first of little consistency, like tripping in the hallway, but which little by little become more violent.
The story of Invisible is not only the point of view of the abuser and the abused, but also of an entire environment that, knowing or intuiting, does not act. Friends do not act nor do teachers. The parents don’t even notice and hence the kid ends up assuming that he has superpowers, including being invisible.
“Everything in the novel is real events from different people who have been telling me, child psychologists, teachers…” In fact, although he is not a teacher, in his immediate environment he has at least five teachers, a source of ideas and anecdotes. “Since the book was published until today, every day, without exception, I have received emails or messages on Instagram from people who have read the book,” explains Moreno, who promotes contact with the reader by putting all his accounts up to date. end of the book. A system that has also involuntarily made him the confidant of some bullied children.
“The most shocking case that I remember was during the pandemic, in 2020. There were no classes and in some schools they put Invisibles as reading during those days. A boy wrote to me telling me: I don’t want Covid to ever end.” And what does one do in those cases? “I cannot recommend something that could be counterproductive. I am not a psychologist and I have no training to act in these cases. My answer is always the same, that they talk about it with their parents, with the teachers, with whoever, but that they talk about it. Because the first step to try to solve it is to tell it.”
Invisible, in addition to being a tool book thanks to which bullying has been discussed in many high schools, is now also going to be a miniseries – five 50-minute chapters – from Disney. At the moment there is no broadcast date, although filming has already been completed, directed by Paco Caballero (Amor de madre, Reyes contra Santa, Perdiendo el este). It stars the young actor Eric Seijo, giving life to the “invisible boy”, along with the Goya nominee Aura Garrido (A Private Affair, The Innocent, The Day After Tomorrow, The Ministry of Time), in the role of the teacher. , one of the key characters in the plot. The cast is completed by a cast of young performers made up of Diego Montejo, Liv Dobner, and Izan Fernández, among others. “The series is going to be very faithful to the book,” comments Eloy Moreno, who has only acted as a “listener” in the filming and who has another work, Tierra, also in the process of becoming a series.
