Rocío’s essay in response to Michaux’s Ecuador was written in a short time. I also translated it quickly. At the time, we were attending a literary convention in Lyon and then we returned to Paris by train. I was working on an Anthology of Mexican Poetry, and Rocío was proofreading, for the last time, her essay. It was during this trip that I realized how totally devoted she was to her writing. She never stopped. “Writer” I said to myself. “What on earth is she up to?” The trip was long and I fell sleep. When I opened my eyes after some time, she was still writing. “What are you doing?” I asked. “Writing a new book?” “You know I am talking to Michaux.” She answered. “Good, good.” I told her. “That is how it should be.” I had had similar experiences with other writers. I remember, for example, that when I was translating a novel by Miguel Angel Asturias, one day, he opened the door to his flat, and before he said hello, he said: “Claude, you know so and so, (the hero of the novel he was writing) who died yesterday?

Well, he didn’t die; I spent the night with him. He is back!” Therefore, the fact that Rocío had engaged in a dialogue with Michaux didn’t surprise me very much. What surprised me later was her persistence in the matter. Every time I asked her about the book she would make the same comment” “I have many things to clear up with Michaux!” Finally, one day she told me that her essay had been converted into a novel.
Five years have passed since, and now we have the result: an extraordinary novel. This book will become the great Ecuadorian novel; it exemplifies the quality of Ecuadorian letters; and it will be the mirror of the country before the world, the mirror of the true Ecuador.
Since Rocío Durán-Barba published her first novel, París, sueño eterno. I knew she was a leading Latin-American novelist. “This book,” I told her, “will always be your reference work.” Today, I can once again promote the thesis that this book began to represent with mastery, the period of the end of the XX century and the beginning of the XXI century.