The Argentine psychoanalyst who stands out in the United States with a novel he wrote in the ’90s

Gustavo AbrevayHe has just finished attending his office in the Belgrano neighborhood and is getting ready to talk. In addition to being a psychologist and psychiatrist, he is a writer. We must talk about one of his novels, The hatcheryand its long and curious journey.

Written in the ’90s, winner of a prize in 2003 (awarded by a notable jury: Liliana Heker, Pablo de Santis and Héctor Tizón), published in 2017 by Revolver, an Argentine independent label that specializes in crime novels, it circulated little. and nothing. But Abrevaya is not one to give up.

At 71 years old, he decided to give his book one more chance. She got it translated into English and in October 2023 it went on sale in the United States. She was already happy with that new open door, until, in November, The New York Times chose it as one of the ten best in the horror genre published in 2023. This changed the equation: The SanctuaryWhat is it called there? The hatchery, It is being a success and is now in its second edition..

Abrevaya is a romantic man. He says no, but he also admits that he watches a movie a night since he met his wife. The couple’s first outing was fifty years ago and to the movies. Since then he cannot conceive of ending the day without watching a film, whether in a theater, the old-fashioned way, or at home.

An admirer of Dante Alighieri and his Divine Comedy, he is moved by saying that the Florentine poet was shy and that out of love for Beatrice, who only smiled at him once, he dedicated his work to her.

“I’m not very romantic,” he clarifies, “but when I get involved with romanticism my eyes also fill with tears.” Now that he thinks about it again, to his wife – he confesses – he keeps telling her that he loves her and that she is the prettiest one. “My life without her is unthinkable”. His voice speeds up, taking him away from his anguish. “I have no concept for that,” says the psychologist more than the writer.

The hatchery It is a novel where there is cinema and where there is a couple who love each other. Álvaro and Alicia are two young people who go on a trip to the south in a red ’76 Chevy coupe.

He goes with his camera (he is an independent filmmaker), she with her curly brown hair. In chapter one, Álvaro is the one who speaks, films, and directs the scene that could well be the first of his next film. But something goes wrong. The car breaks down and they are alone in the desert. Although not as much as you think: a few kilometers away there is a town called Los Huemules and a hotel.

They spend the night there, but when Álvaro wakes up, Alicia is no longer there. She will speak with the mayor, with the person in charge of the morgue, with the Police, she goes to the hospital, but no one will know anything about her. The only thing they will tell you is not to go out at night. Álvaro will have to discover that truth without help and it will be shocking.

Much of The hatchery It was made in the workshop of the writer Hugo Correa Luna: “I must have started in ’87, ’88… Hugo was an extraordinary teacher. I always told him that he taught what he didn’t know, because he didn’t come to tell me what I had to do. He would talk to me about what I was doing and my technique, and I would laugh: ‘What technique are you talking about?’”

Correa Luna died in 2020 and Abrevaya still finds it difficult to pass by the writer’s house. He says that the only copy of The Sanctuary What he will give will be for his master’s widow.

Psychoanalysis and literature have a lot in common. Freud said he was a writer disguised as a doctor. “He said the phrase to me. He knew that I was going to appear in the world and I have it stored there,” says Abrevaya ironically. Writers and psychoanalysts are in “the same mud of language”precise, they’re just looking for different things.

Now what The New York Times He put him in a team of chosen ones, in which the established Argentine Mariana Enriquez also stands out, the emotion overwhelms him. He dreams of having more time to write, but that would mean reducing the number of patientswhom he has been accompanying for a long time.

“I feel enormous appreciation for them. It has been a long time of talking about very intimate things. I have experienced moving things in this office,” says Abrevaya.

If he wanted to retire, he would have to tell them that he couldn’t take care of them anymore and for that, he says, “I wouldn’t give him the soul.” For now, he is limiting himself to not taking new patients, a way to gain more space for literature and not pay a high emotional cost.

The hatchery It is not Abrevaya’s first book. Since seeing his texts published is a necessity for him, he worked with small publishers in Argentina and Spain, and participated in different anthologies. Two of them were with those writer friends with whom he usually hangs out at the Yenny bookstore in Cabildo y Juramento.

“We call ourselves El Grupo Juramento, it’s kind of a joke, but hey, they know us that way,” he says. Now they are preparing a Black Literature Day. “We’ll meet there to have coffee, to discuss, to see what can be invented.”

It could be said that at the age of 71 “he hit his stride.” But he has reservations about it. This is a time to “not be taken by the anecdote; In psychoanalysis we would say ‘by the imaginary’but rather to treat it with a certain game that allows other senses to fall.”

Ultimately, it’s about continuing to write, and Abrevaya continues. He’s onto something new now, although naturally (and perhaps out of cabal), he says he prefers not to give more details.

Sometimes it’s about not letting go. You have to insist, look for new paths. Abrevaya always knew that The hatchery It was good, but as happens to so many, the path to big publishers is often uncertain. In his case, the key was to encourage himself to send an email.

The recipient of that email was the translator Andrea G. Labinger, who read the novel and was fascinated. She titled it The Sanctuary.

“Sanctuary”, in addition to meaning “sanctuary” of a church, is used to define a place where protection is sought. The suggestion was very accurate, Abrevaya admits, because, indeed, in the novel there is a home run by a nun who is one of the key pieces of the mystery. The sinister thing is that no one will find refuge in that place.

Although Labinger doesn’t like to be told that he also works as a literary agent, for Abrevaya it definitely was. One day she sent him a message: “Well, hallelujah! “I got an editor.” Today, Schaffner Press is the first North American publisher to support Abrevaya’s literature.

“There was a condition that I put to the editor that was kind of funny. I said: ‘I want Stephen King to receive my book. I dream of him reading it’. The guys laughed, but in the end they sent it to him.”

The Sanctuary is now in the author’s library of Carrie: “If Stephen King ever reads my novel, I’ll die.” Now that he appeared on the list The New York Times He has “certain hope” that his dream will come true.