Lucie Rico (Perpignan, 1988) doesn’t mind betting everything on red if she believes in something. The moment she decided that her life would revolve around literature, she didn’t look back, and she focused on creating new stories. Her intention was not to become the voice of a generation, but to have fun and entertain the reader. Surely, without realizing it, she is achieving both, as indicated by the sales figures for her works in France. These days, she visits Barcelona to present her new book, GPS, at the BCNegra festival.
The protagonist of your book is very alone.
She feels this way despite having a partner and a friend, Sandrine.
A friend who disappears.
The day after their engagement party. But Ariane keeps the location she sent him the day before.
And the red dot is moving.
Yes, she goes to the places that meant something to them in the past.
Is this a ghost novel?
Or vampires. I hadn’t stopped to think about it, but it is true that both the dead and missing people constitute us as people and live within us.
That’s what happens to the protagonist.
That’s how it is. Furthermore, he has become obsessed with finding her. And, beyond the loss, it is because she interacts little with the world and does not work.
Not working has an influence, then.
Clear. My generation has grown up with the fear of unemployment and I, as a novelist, have taken advantage of this theme. When you tell people that you are unemployed, they look at you strangely, as if you were from another world. They think that you are not looking for work and that you do nothing all day. Without work it seems like you are nobody.
Have you ever been unemployed?
Two years. But I experienced it differently because I took advantage of them to write, although almost no one understood me.
Because it says?
They told me that many writers continued working despite writing. They didn’t understand that writing in itself was a job. They wondered how he was going to be able to live off of that. Even today, when I have already published books and they have had a good reception, they ask me this.
Are you worried about your future?
It makes me anxious, but at the same time, I am aware of how lucky I am. In France, my editor gives me complete freedom to create and find new ways of saying things.
How, for example, can the reader feel like they are reading a telephone conversation instead of a book?
I want him to be immersed in a screen and feel like he’s lost next to Ariane.
Do you think that new generations no longer know how to navigate without GPS?
In general, no. I write from my experience and, honestly, I have no sense of direction, nor do many of my friends. It’s sad, but I feel like without GPS I can’t go anywhere. And, at the same time, by using it, I fear I will miss many things.
Like what?
When I travel to a new place, I feel like I am very focused on following a red dot that takes me from a starting point to an end.
And what happens in the middle?
I don’t notice it many times because I’m looking at the screen. Before, with maps, you at least had to study the path beforehand and you learned something in the process. I think we would discover many more things if we understood the value of getting lost.
Better to leave the phone aside?
Let there be a balance. Sometimes I believe GPS more than my own eyes. Even if I have a friend who has shared a location in front of me, if the red dot tells me that I have not reached my destination, I have continued walking. If you think about it, it’s pretty crazy.
