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In the Studio: Juan Gabriel Vásquez: Literature in the centre of my life

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Juan Gabriel Vásquez: Literature in the centre of my life

29/09/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - In the Studio, Juan Gabriel Vásquez: Literature in the centre of my life

The acclaimed Colombian writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez creates his new novel.

Noise-cancelling headphones, trying out different voices and the city of Bogotá – all part of  writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s creative process as he begins his new novel.

The Colombian novelist and journalist Juan Gabriel Vásquez is widely regarded as one of the most important Latin American writers today – known for his novels published in 28 languages, including the award-winning The Sound Of Things Falling, The Shape of the Ruins, and five other works of fiction, plus stories, literary essays, and political commentary.

Born outside the capital city of Bogotá and having lived there as a student, Vásquez says it's a place that helped shaped his creative life and consciousness as a writer. After 16 years in Paris and Spain, he returned to Colombia to live and write.  Now, as he embarks on his latest novel due to be published in December,  Natalia Guerrero talks to Vasquez in Bogotá to find out how he works on his books. 

As he writes he describes his creative process from thought to page and start to finish. We hear how Bogotá has influenced his writing as "a life calling" with "literature in the centre of my life"; and how he keeps to a daily writing routine – including wearing noise-cancelling headphones so that he can have the silence he needs to create his work. 
 
And there are the very intimate moments of writing the final words and sharing his new book with its very first reader - his wife.
 
Reporter: Natalia Guerrero
Producers: Natalia Guerrero, Emma Wallace and Emma Kingsley for BBC World Service


Photograph of Juan Gabriel Vásquez by Diana Matar

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