Jaume Clotet (Barcelona, ??1974) had written two historical novels – in 2012 Lliures o morts, four mans with David de Montserrat, and in 2016 El catar proscript, Nèstor Luján prize – but with The Brotherhood of the Fallen Angel (Destino, winner of the Josep Pla prize) has taken a step towards current fiction, with historical elements, yes, but also religious and fantasy elements in a thriller that raises the relationship between good and evil throughout the history of humanity, with a plot that begins with the fall of Acre, the last capital of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, in 1291, but the bulk of the events take place in an undetermined near future, in two scenarios prone to mystery and spirituality as they are Montserrat and the Vatican.
Clotet is very clear about the motivation that led him to write it: “It’s a novel that I thought I wouldn’t be able to do, but in life we ??have to do what we don’t know how to do, otherwise we would still be above the trees”. To get out of it, he uses on the one hand everyday elements for the Catalan reader, whether it is the abbey of Montserrat or various identifying elements of Barcelona, ??”places that readers may have passed by, and that they can easily locate” , and on the other a series of “historical references to completely tie up this allioli. What is not real has a historical basis that is familiar to everyone: Pope Borja, the Templars or the Nazis in Montserrat. Even the fantastic or magical elements that appear are real myths, everything has a cultural basis that facilitates the transition from reality to fiction”.
The main characters of this fiction are a young monk from Montserrat and a policewoman who, due to various circumstances, find themselves involved in a mission of the Church, directly commissioned by the Holy Father, which has to do with the real protagonist of the book : evil. “I care very little about good, I care much more about bad, knowing that any of us would be capable of doing barbarities, either because you or your family are threatened or because there are bad people, and to be a good person it has a point of militancy”. Of course, the author is convinced that “evil comes everywhere and obviously also in organizations that apparently keep the essence of values: the more power, the more options there are for evil to spread. A person who has no power can be very evil, but he will not do anything. If Hitler had been a carpenter all his life, he would be a hooligan of his people and that’s it.”
“In politics, which is the other paradigm when talking about this, evil progresses little, because they are very exposed to the public sphere, to internal and external control, from the parties, from the people, from the networks, from the journalists, and in addition every four years there is a vote, which means that they can be removed. On the other hand, in the Vatican, sports clubs, large business or communication corporations where no one is accountable, or very little, evil progresses more easily because it is not known what they are doing… there is indeed power here. Who rules more today, Elon Musk or Joe Biden?”, he poses.
On the other hand, he also believes that “the Catholic Church, like no other, has set up a liturgy of impressive power, which it has built for two thousand years, and which, moreover, has been dedicated to it since forever, it is unbeatable” , something that “the Catalans have not been able to do, and without the staging, the liturgy, of power, you cannot build much”.
The journalist and writer recognizes the spiritual power of Montserrat, “far beyond religion, with a lot of magnetism. It is the sacred mountain of the Catalans, like Mount Uluru of the Australians… It is an icon”. The author is so convinced of this power that he has decided to insist on it, because although the story begins and ends, “I have grown fond of the characters, and I have found many fantastic, mythological and religious Catalan references that I did not know, so that I will make a second part and I think a third and everything, which can be read individually, but also collectively”.
He is also clear that “it is a novel for having fun, an entertainment vehicle for the general public, for a holiday, for the summer or for a trip. I want to reach the general public with Catalan themes”, he says, betting that in Catalonia there will be more novels like this and of all kinds, because there are still genres that are rarely touched upon, such as the romantic novel: “I have the feeling that we Catalans think that we are select and that we make literature, theater or cinema for minorities. We have to play all the games in all areas, in all genres of all disciplines, because we have to go outside”, he concludes.
