This is your eighth book, and it\u2019s received the most important award in Catalan literature. What does it mean to you to have won the Ramon Llull Prize?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m really excited that this novel is backed by the award. Like the novel and the story, the Ramon Llull Prize has one foot here in Spain and the other abroad, with a clear international angle. That\u2019s why I put myself forward. It\u2019s a powerful story, deeply tied to something very Spanish (wine), in a land that is known for wine-growing (the Pened\u00e8s region), and with a desire to head out into the world, to grow, which was what Jean Leon was looking for.<\/p>\n When did you first hear the name Jean Leon?<\/strong><\/p>\n Here, inside these four walls where we are now, at Vinoteca Torres on Passeig de Gr\u00e0cia in Barcelona. The newspaper El Mundo<\/em> was preparing a special for St. George\u2019s Day and they invited various writers so we could talk about possible adaptations of literary works to other formats. The round table featured a bottle of Jean Leon and they explained his story to us to get us to see that his life would be perfect for turning into a novel or a movie. I heard it and was blown away…<\/p>\n Did you think it was time to do it?<\/strong><\/p>\n Totally. I looked at the others and asked them if anyone wanted to do something. No one said anything and that\u2019s when I decided to take it on.<\/p>\n Did you think that apart from a film-worthy life, Jean Leon had to have a novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n Exactly. I thought there was room to develop the material even more. I got home and the first thing I did was start looking for information, searching for contacts, reading…<\/p>\n Tell us about the process. How did you do your research?<\/strong><\/p>\n I got in touch with Jaume Rovira, his first winemaker, and Anna Carri\u00f3n, Jean Leon\u2019s younger sister, who still remembers him very well. I was also in touch with his son, who I met up with in Barcelona thanks to Mireia Torres, the winery\u2019s general director, and Maria Ant\u00f2nia Rovira, the communication manager, both of whom I spoke to as well. I also read the biography Sebastian Moreno wrote a few years ago. I looked at photos, I looked up articles from the 1950s from the USA and Spain, I talked with winemakers, and read obituaries from The Washington Post<\/em> and The New York Times<\/em>… A bit of everything really!<\/p>\n There\u2019s also the documentary by Agust\u00ed Vila from a few years ago…<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes. The other thing is that in the documentary, when Paul Newman talks, it sheds light on lots of things about how his relationship with Jean Leon went after the death of James Dean, who was Jean Leon\u2019s kindred spirit. Newman was offered all of Dean\u2019s roles at that time, but he didn\u2019t want to take them. He had a personal and identity crisis, and if it hadn\u2019t been for Jean Leon, Paul Newman wouldn\u2019t have been who he was.<\/p>\n Will the novel be a way of learning about personality traits of Jean Leon that we don\u2019t know about?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Yes. Once the story had enough to it, I let his sister (Anna Carri\u00f3n) read it. When she read it, she called me and said: it\u2019s him. Of course, when someone so close gives their approval, you think: OK, it\u2019s going well.<\/p>\n Will we find out some things no one knew about to now?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, the novel reveals details of the lives of people who are very well known, details that we didn\u2019t know until now. There\u2019s a bit of everything and some things I\u2019m saving to talk about during the book presentations. There are anecdotes with Marlon Brando, Salvador Dal\u00ed, and Alfred Hitchcock \u2013 to name a few \u2013 and they\u2019re always related to the world of wine or gastronomy.<\/p>\n The way you explain it, it seems like you had fun writing the book…<\/strong><\/p>\n Definitely! There are characters everyone knows and you have to approach it with lots of respect. The stories have a lot to them. Knowing what to put in and what to take out is an important sacrifice. I\u2019ve picked the most important characters such as Frank Sinatra, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Reagan, and JFK, and from there I wove the story.<\/p>\n Why do you think everyone trusted him so much?<\/strong><\/p>\n Because he was the great confessor of the stars. He would listen to them, take mental notes, and would always know what each of them wanted. That\u2019s why they adored him. He was patient and a real problem solver, almost more of a diplomat than anything else. I defined him as the \u201cdirector of the stars in their everyday lives.\u201d Like their spiritual father.<\/p>\n What were you able to find out about Marilyn Monroe\u2019s last dinner? Did he serve her?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>I\u2019m sure he did. They had home delivery service at La Scala and with the preferred customers, it was Jean Leon himself who went to their houses. Besides that anecdote, there are others with Frank Sinatra, James Dean, and Ronald Reagan that I was also able to confirm with media like The Washington Post<\/em> and The New York Times<\/em>. I really believe it.<\/p>\n James Dean is the star of the novel\u2019s cover. How did you choose that image?<\/strong><\/p>\n Because it\u2019s an image that invites you to travel to the golden age of 1950s Hollywood. It features the elegance of James Dean because he is a key figure in the life of Jean Leon and in the story in this novel. A story that will get you dreaming while you still keep your feet on the ground.<\/p>\n Which chapter of Jean Leon\u2019s life has impacted you most?<\/strong><\/p>\n When he decides to leave and tries seven times to get on a ship that will take him to who knows were, and on the eighth attempt he finally manages to do it, as a stowaway, and he reaches the US with the help of a sailor who discovered him in the hold. Given that situation you start thinking, \u201cI don\u2019t know if just anyone would make it…\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s just how the book starts…<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, because for me it\u2019s the beginning of everything. You have to have a lot of belief in yourself and in what you\u2019re searching for to say, \u201clet\u2019s go!\u201d<\/p>\n What have you learned from him?<\/strong><\/p>\n Not to give up, to fight tooth and nail for what you believe in. If you don\u2019t believe in it, who will? To convey the excitement of turning dreams into reality and surrounding yourself with a good team, which is what he did. You have to have dreams because if you don\u2019t, you\u2019ll never be able to make them come true.<\/p>\n Do you think he was ahead of his time?<\/strong><\/p>\n Completely. He was an entrepreneur, which is a word that\u2019s been popping up left, right, and center for a while now. But in the 1940s or 1950s, it was pretty unusual for someone to up sticks and go and try to change their life. There\u2019s also everything he did later with wine in the Pened\u00e8s \u2013 he was a real visionary.<\/p>\n What do you think of the legacy he left behind?<\/strong><\/p>\n The truth is that making a name for yourself in the world of wine and making your own mark that\u2019s different and having it as a prestigious brand that\u2019s a point of reference \u2013 there\u2019s a lot of merit in that. I tip my hat to him.<\/p>\n Do you think that Jean Leon wines capture the essence of their founder?<\/strong><\/p>\n Totally. In terms of what I know to identify when you taste them, yes. They\u2019re special, unique, they make you feel special, which is how he made people feel.<\/p>\n Do you already have a protagonist for your next novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n Of course! I\u2019m like a machine that never stops. I\u2019m always paying attention to everything that goes on around me, and there are always stories that come your way, that surprise you, or that you have waiting in the wings. I have a folder of ideas and there\u2019s always three or four in there that I\u2019ve started. Of those, there\u2019s always one that\u2019s moving along, and that\u2019s the one I\u2019m working on. Books, like wine, have a slow, laborious creation process. When I finished La for\u00e7a d\u2019un dest\u00ed<\/em>, after a few days I threw myself into the new novel, which will be a reality in two or three years.<\/p>\n Does the fact that you\u2019re a journalist help to create these kinds of novels that define you so well?<\/strong><\/p>\n Journalism is curiosity. You stop being a journalist the day you\u2019re no longer curious. Or you\u2019re a journalist precisely because you\u2019re curious, which is very different from being a gossip. Curiosity enriches you, it gives you the chance to acquire more knowledge and want to share it with people who want to read, watch, or listen to you. That\u2019s the spark that drives you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" La For\u00e7a d\u2019un dest\u00ed (\u201cThe Power of Destiny\u201d), Mart\u00ed Gironell\u2019s novel, winner of the Ramon Llull Prize and inspired by the life of Jean Leon, the winery\u2019s founder, is in bookstores now. We talked to the author to find out what\u2019s behind the book\u2019s more than 300 pages. This is your eighth book, and it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":814,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovering-jean-leon"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jeanleon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/FOTO_001-850x478.jpg\")
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