Marcelo Figueras grew up in Argentina and currently lives in Barcelona. His novel
Kamchatka (which takes its title from a key territory in the board game Risk) is his first to be translated into English.
From his Q & A with Erin Mendell at the
Wall Street Journal:
The Wall Street Journal: What’s the strategic importance of Kamchatka?
Marcelo Figueras: It’s a very little country in Asia, but it’s very useful because from Kamchatka you can leap to Japan, and you can leap also to America. … I had already written the novel when I had watched an episode of that sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle,” and it was really funny because Malcolm’s mother and father were playing Risk, and the mother beat the crap out of the father, and [in consoling himself] he said, “At least I got to keep Kamchatka.…”
So I laughed and said, “ I guess somebody in North America will really know what Kamchatka is about.”
Do you play Risk?
Quite a lot. It was a really popular board game during the ‘70s in Argentina. In Argentina it has another name: Teg.
What are some of the challenges of writing from a child’s perspective?
There are...[read on]
--Marshal Zeringue