The writer Matilde Asensi publishes the continuation of its successful “The Cato” – Minuto30.com

Although Matilde Asensi was always opposed to sequels to novels he considered “closed”, he discovered three years ago through the social networks that thousands of readers were like “junkies” from his successful “The Last Cato” (2001) and they insisted on a continuation until you “virus inoculated”

Matilde Asensi, in an image file, in an interview with Efe. EFE / File

So, almost 15 years after publishing that historical and adventure which sold over three million copies novel, arrives today in bookshops “ Return Cato “, published by Planeta, in which the protagonists, Ottavia and Farag Boswell , a couple of archaeologists, and his friend Kaspar again to solve a new mystery: the whereabouts of the remains of Jesus of Nazareth

In an interview, Asensi recalls that it was during the promotion campaign. third book in his trilogy Martin Silver Eye, three years ago, when he began to interact with their fans through social networks and how he discovered “great surprise” that called for a continuation of Cato, as “a dose into a vein,” something that had always ruled out.

“But I was suddenly thinking of the characters and mounting a story for them that made sense, so I decided to go ahead” He explains the Alicante author who says he has spent the last three years locked in your home to write this book, without informing his readers, which has been hinting “none fell.”

Until summoned his followers through social networks for a date less than two months ago and announced “the return of Cato”: “It was amazing,” he says the writer recalling the reaction of readers

<. p> “The fault was of the readers but I am thankful to them because I know that was a good idea,” says the writer.

Matilde Asensi has enjoyed a lot, he says, “re-skin” of Ottavia, Farag and Kaspar , some characters that have also spent 15 years and therefore have logically changed and are older. “But that has changed in this time has been the world,” says the author.

The protagonists embark on a 600-page adventure that begins in Canada to reach Holy Land, through Mongolian , Istanbul or Silk Road.

Two of the three years he has Asensi used in writing this book it has been to study and documented since he insists, is “very faithful to history”: “do not touch the History and not modify a single thing” but the further back “insecure are the data, no great certainties”.

“I am not a historian and I can make mistakes but if I have to make a choice between two dates or theories for fiction took most recognized online by experts, “says Asensi, which ensures that sometimes you have to make” lace “.

The search for the alleged mortal remains of Jesus of Nazareth to facing protagonists leads to the novel to a ground on which it has had to document deeply, says Asensi, recognizing that history and religion “do not get along very well.”

“But increasingly know more, much more than people think, but not transcend religious academia, “says the writer, who treated as underlying theme in his book power and how it is exercised in religions in general and Catholic Church in particular.

So, posed at the beginning of the narrative as history is written by those in authority, that force everyone to believe what is written but does not conform to the truth.

Carmen Naranjo. EFE