Us Human Towers - A Paean to Tarragona and its People
By Stephen Rossiter
Us Human Towers began life as the opening of a short story that I had begun over a decade ago and inexplicably abandoned. I discovered it two summers ago and decided that I would like to complete it.
I lived in Tarragona in the late ’80s and now visit there twice a year so it became the obvious choice for the story’s setting. I love the city – the kilometre-long, tree-lined Rambla that rises to a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean, the ships anchored in the bay and lit up at night, the old quarter with its cathedral and maze of cobbled streets, the Roman ruins, including an amphitheatre and aqueduct. I wanted the city to become an important part of the story and for the reader to visualise it well.
It is my most accessible novel and there are some autobiographical details in it, prompted by a break-up I went through a few years before writing the story. Robert Schumann described the stereotypical suffering artist as “free, but lonely”, and that describes my own journey very well and that of the main protagonist, Esteban. The poet Richard Murphy described this dilemma succinctly and brilliantly in his poem Moonshine. When he is with his lover, he wants to be alone and when he is alone, he wants to be with his lover!
Faith and strong women
The comfort of religion features strongly in the story. I discovered an exhibition of reredos in the cathedral when my sisters came to visit me on one of my holidays in Tarragona. The reredos inspired me to write a long poem, and I decided to revisit them to kick off the novel. I feel God’s presence through my writing, and I wanted to give a positive image of the church after so many years of bad press. There is a lot of suffering depicted in some of the reredos and they signal the later suffering of Esteban during his dark night of the soul.
All the female characters in my fiction are portrayed as strong, wise and virtuous. I have been blessed with great female role models in my own life, and I like to reflect this in my writing.
Author Stephen Rossiter signing copies of the book at Hubb 16 bookshop.
Where my writing takes me
I visit a small, old bar in the old quarter every day before lunch while on holiday. I sit at the back and silently take in all the comings and goings and conversations, including the owner, who is larger than life! I feel hidden away from the world there and completely at peace. It’s like my base camp in the city. I never imagined that one day it would feature in my writing, but it deserves its place there.
As with all my fiction, I never plan. I just take up the story each day and somehow find the next part to write. This is at odds with my own life which I need to meticulously plan each day!
I took up a teaching position in a private school outside of Tarragona all those years ago. It could just as well have been somewhere else and I might never have come to know this beautiful city that has made such a huge impact on my life, in fact and fiction.
Translations
The novel will appear in Catalan, Spanish and Italian next summer, thanks to Maria and Enda, my ever-indulgent publishers at Ybernia! I can’t wait!
My friend Ger Kelleher, who is translating the novel into Spanish for me, describes it thus: It is a sensual novel about risk – emotional, romantic and existential. Set against the sunlit streets of Tarragona, where two adults briefly build something beautiful, knowing that it may not last. Perhaps an ode to middle-age, the hope that refuses to be extinguished.
And remember
Us Human Towers is out now, available on our website, Amazon and through good bookshops.
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