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The writer Nicolás Melini. Montaña Pulido
Two Commissioners, a Hanged Man, and a Mystery on the Volcanic Island

Two Commissioners, a Hanged Man, and a Mystery on the Volcanic Island

The novel 'The Tourist Without Luggage' by Nicolás Melini delves into the idiosyncrasies of La Palma

Doménico Chiappe

Madrid

Lunes, 3 de febrero 2025, 00:20

In this fiction by Nicolás Melini, set on the island of La Palma, the volcanic eruption occurs in the capital, Santa Cruz - in reality spared from the ashes during the Cumbre Vieja eruption. "Do not worry, there are no mortal victims to mourn," assures Melini, speaking about his novel 'The Tourist Without Luggage', in which a man is found hanging in a forest on this Atlantic island. As in classic mysteries, there are two commissioners, one experienced and the other a novice, who must determine if it is a suicide, as it seems.

"They are very good policemen," summarizes Melini, who was born on this Canary Island. "And it is possible that the tourist is not exactly a tourist and traveled with the rope as his only luggage. The German is part of the island's idiosyncrasy. Since childhood, in La Palma, we have seen a stable German population grow. And from other places too."

La Palma has its own rules and lives under the influence of the "Palmeran sarcasm," asserts the author, "which is a kind of benevolent cainism, a malice not devoid of good-naturedness. And of course, this is found in some situations and characters. But perhaps it is found above all in how the story is told. I do not know if there is something invisible to outsiders. Perhaps for them, there is an extra layer of mystery, but I do not know. It is very difficult to foresee the experiences of readers, which are always diverse and personal."

A Messiah and a Script

The plot also includes ritual violence and a charismatic leader. "The messiah is found in many of our stories. I will only say that things happen in a city proud of its Catholicism, which displays crosses in all its corners, and which carries the cross even in its name, Santa Cruz de La Palma."

This story haunted Melini since 1997, when it began to turn into a script that has now become a novel. "Federico Luppi was going to be Commissioner Nieves, but I had to give up making the film," he recalls. "To write the novel, I had to forget what was in the script, which was also insufficient because these are just a step towards a definitive work, which is the film. In literary writing, everything about the story has to be there at once, in every sentence, in every paragraph."

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