Another black week for literature in Gijón

Looking more like zombies than suspects after getting up at the crack of dawn, some of the 140 writers participating in the 24th Semana Negra converged on a platform at Madrid's Chamartín station at the weekend and boarded a special train bound for Gijón, in the northern region of Asturias.

It was 8am, and the authors settled into their seats before dozing off, as journalists wandered in and out of the train cars.

The director of the festival, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, grasped an unlit cigarette while he explained that Semana Negra brings writers together, rather than keeping them apart, as publishers tend to do.

"There are around six islands in the Spanish-speaking literary world: Buenos Aires, Mexico, Bogota, Chile, Madrid and Barcelona," he explained.

The popular literary festival, which encompasses crime, horror, sci-fi, comic books and other genres, faces a new challenge this year: opposition from the rector of Oviedo University, who did not want the event to be held on his campus, and from the new mayor, Carmen Moriyón, who is reconsidering local funding for the association that runs Semana Negra.

Faced with these doubts over the future of the event, Taibo II is trying to focus the debate on the "popular fiesta" side of the book fair, which never fails to draw media attention to the Asturian city.

Killing an ayatollah

During the ride, the director walked up and down the aisles to drum up interest for Naïri Nahapétian, an Iranian journalist living in exile in France. She was in the train cafeteria presenting her first detective novel, Who Killed Ayatollah Kanuni? .

"Writing is an act of freedom that has given me the chance to kill an ayatollah," she said with a smile.

Before eating lunch in Mieres, the train tackled the pass at Pajares and the mountainous landscape provided the setting for a group of writers to discuss their new projects.

"We Mexicans have two passions: killing and crying. The dead call upon other dead, and sometimes they provide an answer to the horror," Héctor de Mauleón, a Rodolfo Walsh Prize finalist, told a rapt audience. That moment of mystery marked the true beginning of Semana Negra. The live band that greeted the train in Gijón with a rendition of James Bond movie themes only confirmed it.

Semana Negra. Until July 31 in Gijón. www.semananegra.org