it turned out to be a vertebra of a colombian liberal leader murdered in 19118. t of the skull, of rafael, another colombian leader murdered in 1914. so having these bones in my hands, and then going back to the hospital to take my girls in the same hands. yes. that was the origin of the novel, that assisted the idea of the inheritance of violence and i thought how could i protect these girls from the past violence of the country. and it was such an important thing that i decided that inventing the narrator to tell this would just ruin the whole idea. because you couldn't take yourself out of the story after that experience. exactly, exactly. i had to putjuan gabriel vasquez as a narrator in order not to undermine, i guess, the personal importance the whole thing had for me. because one of the powerful things about the story is that sense of, you know, a piece of information being passed and a quest beginning. yes. which becomes something that has to be satisfied. it has to be completed. they can't be left. yes, the idea of investigation is very important to the n