We are used to seeing her handling politicians and political changes and few people expected Julia Navarro to win over more than 50,000 readers with her first novel, La Hermandad de la Sábana Santa (Plaza & Janés). On the eve of the book fair, she denied she is giving up journalism, although she is getting her second novel together and admitted she was “thrilled” about her book being released in Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Chile and Puerto Rico.

Question: How did you go from national politics to writing a novel?

Answer: Very easily. I actually had a better time writing the novel than books about politics.

Q: How did you go from a book like Señora Presidenta, about the position of women from the 1st Republic to the present day, to La Hermandad de la Sábana Santa?

A: By chance, because I had never been tempted to write a novel; but a news item I read in “El Mundo” newspaper sparked my imagination and led me to look into the scientific controversy surrounding the authenticity of the Turin Shroud.

Q: Why?

A: Because it was about the discovery of Walter McCrone’s body. He was one of the scientists who judged it to be a fake.

Q: How long did you spend on it and how did you fit writing the book into your everyday life?

A: I took a year and a half and I also spent some time researching and reading about the Turin Shroud, which I must admit I knew almost nothing about. I lost a lot of sleep and holiday time, but I really enjoyed doing it!

Q: What authors or novels did you model yourself on?

A: I did not really model myself on anyone; or maybe I did as I am a compulsive reader. I am more into essays than novels. I am crazy about García Márquez and Pérez-Reverte, journalists who write, and also the classics. Every book you read teaches you something.

Q: No doubt, but is there no author of historic novels you are interested in?

A: Matilde Asensi or Valerio Manfredi, who combine entertainment and quality.

Q: Did you know that the real shroud is kept in Oviedo cathedral? I am only telling you to give you an idea for your next book...

A: Ha, ha. When I was in Oviedo on the book tour that was what I was most asked about, but I did not want to get into the controversy about which one, if either of them, is the real one.

Q: What connection has La Hermandad with The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown?

A: None, absolutely none at all.

Q: All the same, why are readers so interested in historic novels with a somewhat mystical undertone?

A: I think people are interested in the past, but only or perhaps especially if the tale is told in an entertaining way.

Q: In the case of the Turin Shroud, where does the legend begin and the history end?

A: It is a bit of a mix. Apart from my novel, it is actually almost impossible to tell the legend and history apart, not to mention all of the incidents the Turin Shroud has been involved in, what with it disappearing and so on.

Q: How has your experience as a journalist helped you as a novelist?

A: I do not think one can be separated from the other: many of my experiences in life and work are reflected in the novel one way or another.

Q: What about the other way around?

A: Maybe my novel is written in modern, accessible language. Journalists cannot afford the luxury of not being understood when they publish an article or a report. I think that modern, accessible language is also in the novel.

Q: Why do so many journalists give up newspapers and go into fiction? Is Spanish politics so unexciting?

A: Actually, in the world of Spanish politics fact is stranger than fiction. I became a novelist by chance, but it has opened up a door for me and I do not know where it will lead.

Q: Why do people say you are going to give up journalism?

A: Not a chance, I am not quitting. I am now writing my second novel and I do not know whether it will be as successful, but if it is that door I mentioned will open a bit wider and I will be able to write undisturbed and enjoy myself at it. But I am not going to give up on writing about the way things are, that would be like denying who am I.

Q: You just mentioned your second novel. Can you give us an inkling of the subject or genre?

A: It will be an adventure story but it will not be like La Hermandad because I am not going to keep writing the same book over again. I have not even told the publisher the plot, although we have already signed the contract.

Q: Would the recent elections make a good novel?

A: They certainly would. Any event can be turned into an adventure story or a mystery.

Q: What about the Iraq war?

A: That could obviously be a good horror story.

Q: Who are the really bad guys in Spanish politics?

A: I do not think the leader of any democratic political party is a bad guy.

Q: What about the really good guys?

A: They are a reflection of what the rest of us are like. They have the same faults and the same virtues.

Q: Have you decided what you are going to write for your readers at the book fair yet?

A: I always thank them for buying the book and for sharing it with me by reading it, but when you sign a book everyone suggests something different, so the dedication is always different too.