Maria Larrea Launches Family Orphan Saga at Andorra Bookshop

Maria Larrea, author of *Les gens de Bilbao naissent où ils veulent*, drew a full house at Moby Dick bookshop in Andorra la Vella for the launch of her book, hosted by fellow writer Caroline Chemarin as part of the French Embassy's cultural season.

Chemarin described the work as a book for reflection, noting that its back cover overlooked several awards beyond the Prix du premier roman, Prix des Inrockuptibles du premier roman, and Prix du roman France Télévisions—prizes from diverse judges and organisations.

Larrea explained that she wrote the novel to answer her own questions and piece together her family history, paying tribute to her parents. Both were Spanish orphans abandoned as infants: Julián, born in June 1943 to a sex worker in Bilbao and handed to the Jesuits; and Victoria, left at a convent in Galicia by her mother, who returned a decade later but never bonded with the strikingly beautiful child.

The pair met as young adults, fled Franco-era poverty, and emigrated to France. Larrea herself was adopted through an illegal network in the Basque Country. Her story weaves themes of orphanhood, deception, false paternity, bullfighting, incest, abortions, alcoholism, and self-discovery into a dense narrative.

"I am Spanish but grew up in France with illiterate parents who escaped the misery of Francoism," Larrea recounted. Her harsh childhood silenced discussions of poverty or the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), spurring her to make short films and embrace tarot—following Alejandro Jodorowsky's view of it as sacred art, a map of the unconscious, and a therapeutic tool for truth, not commercial play. The cards exposed that her supposed parents were not biological.

Larrea called the book a boomerang that returns to its thrower, or like *The Wizard of Oz*. It began as a biological inquiry tracing Julián and Victoria's paths, asking how three Spanish orphans formed a family in 1980s France—a near-archaeological task. She praised her parents as heroes who endured 20th-century hardship.

After sharing the manuscript with Victoria, Larrea plans a film adaptation for 2027, directing from her own screenplay with the same title.

The event followed a session with students at Lycée Comte de Foix, arranged by Nathalie Saurat. Despite its heavy subject matter, the book proved a compelling discovery for attendees.