INTERVIEW: Carlos Alba on why his new novel about human frailty and misunderstanding will strike a chord thecourier.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thecourier.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Carlos Alba There was something about my father-in-law’s behaviour that I could never quite put my finger on. From my first meeting with him, there was an uncertainty to our respective roles. I’d been in the company of previous girlfriends’ fathers and there was always an obvious power imbalance in favour of the older men. They usually took the lead in conversation, asked me questions and, if I seemed nervous, tried to put me at ease. Andrew was silent and reticent and, while initially I put this down to shyness, he was also very certain of his grounds and opinions. My relationship with his daughter Hilary developed – we married and had three children – but I never felt like I got to know Andrew any better. The silences continued, he rarely if ever gave away any detail about himself, and conversations with him were a peculiar, stop-start affair.