Beloved Monster (Amado monstruo)

Your monsters are closer than you think.

Juan D., a 30-year-old man, seeks to enter the job market for the first time, a market that, until now, has been inaccessible to him. This is because of his overbearing mother and her obsession with overprotecting him to the point of indecency. Juan is an adult, although he has a physical defect, which is why his mother decided on home-school and made sure he never left the neighborhood.

Despite this, Juan goes to his first job interview – behind his mother’s back – for a position as a security guard at a bank. The interviewer (and the bank’s manager), Krugger, is a seemingly cold, heavy-smoking man with porcelain blue eyes, straw-blond hair, flushed cheeks and a sharp nose. He has conservative thoughts and confesses to liking poetry and cooking. He likes job interviews to be long and detailed so as not to make any mistakes when hiring an employee. Krugger subjects Juan to a strict interrogation to find out his ability to use firearms, but, in the course of the conversation, abominable secrets leak out.

Juan confesses that this is the first time he has ever applied for a job and, as the interview progresses, he eventually tells Krugger about his life. Little by little, Krugger learns about Juan’s peculiar situation, a man in his thirties who lives with no family or friends other than his domineering, widowed mother. Juan reveals the nature of his existence, unhealthily conditioned by her absolute and suffocating presence. In full maturity, Juan D. has an evident desire for independence. He hates his mother because he feels smothered by her, but at the same time he loves her because she is his whole world and he is completely dependent on her.

Krugger will also reveal much of himself in this strange interview, as he hides an unhealthy passion for his deceased mother. The memory of her figure has always accompanied Krugger and he idolizes her even though he never met her. Somehow, that notion makes Krugger side with Juan D.’s mother. The two seemingly disparate people unravel their most abominable secrets and discover a common dark obsession.

It’s a failed attempt on Juan’s part, as he ends up not landing the job. But, he does take away something or other from the conversation, like Krugger’s confession.

RELEVANT DATA: Javier Tomeo confirms in this novel his ability to develop, with impeccable workmanship, situations that are as comical on some occasions as they are frightening in others. In this dialogued story he never forgets to pull the reader in until he leads him to a surprising denouement.

Amado monstruo was a finalist for the prestigious Herralde Novel Award, translated into several languages and was a resounding success in France, where it was a finalist for the Best Foreign Book Award. It had several successful theatrical adaptations, triumphing at the Colline theater in Paris.

Javier Tomeo was a very prolific author, who published more than 30 novels and volumes of short stories, and was very successful in France as a playwright. His books have been translated into 15 languages and some of them have been translated into theater. He is the winner of the City of Barbastro Short Novel Award.

What the critics have said:

“A thoroughbred writer. A masterpiece.” Rafael Conte from El País (Spanish newspaper)

“Superb, original, humorous and surprising.” Art Press (digital magazine)

“When complexes burst as if they were abscesses, they remind us of Buñuel. It almost gives us goose bumps.” Le Soir (digital magazine)

“This sarcastic little masterpiece will delight the martyrs of love. But who will dare to give it as a Mother’s Day gift?” Gabrielle Rollin, Le Monde (digital magazine)

AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: Serie TV, Miniserie, Film, TV Movie.

LANGUAGES AVAILABLE: Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Greek, French, Italian, German.