Born in 1979, Irene Vallejo is a Spanish writer, historian and philologist, and a regular columnist in the newspaper El País. She had written several books, including novels, essays and children’s books before she published El infinito en un junco (Infinity in a Reed), which won a number of prizes in Spain including the National Essay prize and spent 18 months in the bestsellers’ list there. Mario Vargas Llosa has described the book as “a masterpiece” and it has now been published in 30 countries. The English translation by Charlotte Whittle is titled Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World.
How did you become interested in ancient books and the beginning of the printed word?
It goes back to my childhood. My parents were great readers and our home was bristling with books. I was fascinated by these rows of tiny black insects running across [the page] that only adults could interpret. And later, my studies of classical philology brought me into contact with the period when books emerged for the first time. And I’ve always been curious about the first times things happened.
