Núria Bendicho and Layla Martínez in conversation

There are bodies that disappear in remote places and others that are found battered, dead, torn to pieces. Curses that run in the blood and are passed down from father to son, along with secrets and a yearning for revenge. Families that become traps; houses you can’t leave. The first novels by Núria Bendicho and Layla Martínez, Terres mortes - Dead Lands, in English - and Woodworm (Carcoma), deal with violence and isolation, terrible women, and shadowy places from which escape is not easy. Although seemingly distant, they reveal a world in which we see ourselves terribly reflected; their essence is the heart of our everyday life.

Núria Bendicho Giró (Barcelona, 1995) holds a degree in Philosophy. An avid reader and admirer of William Faulkner, she has travelled all over the world. In 2020, she submitted her first novel in Catalan, Terres mortes (Anagrama, 2021) and in Spanish Tierras muertas (Sajalín Editores, 2022), to the Anagrama Book Awards and, although it did not win, the jury nevertheless recommended its publication. Considered by La Vanguardia as the best novel written in Catalan in 2021, Núria Bendicho’s debut was among the finalists for the Llibreter, Òmnium and Finestres Awards.

Layla Martínez is a writer and editor at the independent Levanta Fuego publishing house. She has published an essay entitled Utopia Is Not an Island (Utopía no es una isla) (Episkaia, 2019) and a novel, Woodworm  (Amor de Madre, 2021), which is currently being translated into twelve languages. She has given courses, lectures and workshops on horror literature, female archetypes of evil, and the influence of mystical vision in art. She is currently working on her second novel.