Camila Sosa Villada on how writing became a refuge

Argentine writer Camila Sosa Villada, author of the award‑winning novel El viaje inútil, said that writing did not literally save her life but gave her a vital space to cope with personal struggles. In an interview in Barcelona she recalled a 2018 note in which she imagined suicide without literature, describing the act of writing as a “train” that sometimes led her close to death. The book, published by Tusquets in Spain, explores her childhood in a remote Argentine village, the violence of her parents, and the solace she found in reading and writing. Sosa Villada, a winner of the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz prize and the Grand Prix de l’Heroïne, emphasized that literature offered her a “gift” of personal space and helped her confront issues such as alcohol, substance use and anxiety.

She highlighted the moment she first read aloud to her mother as one of the happiest days of her life, underscoring how fiction pulled her away from an inhospitable environment and gave her a sense of empowerment through solitude.