Leila Cobo: Tell Me Something True
Book Club Discussion

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Leila Cobo

You are well known in the Latin music industry. What made you decide to write this book?

My two loves in life are literature and music. I was always very ambivalent about what direction to take, which is why I actually have degrees in both music and journalism! But I have always devoured fiction. It's my favorite genre, and I always had the thought of a book in the back of my mind. The idea for this particular book, however, crystallized after having my own daughter and feeling many of the ambivalences I describe the book. The story rose from my feelings and it felt natural to take it to paper.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Leila Cobo

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Leila Cobo

"Do you hold people accountable for what their parents do? People can change the circumstances they were born with, don't you think? It's what free will is all about." Do you think that most people change their circumstances? Did Gabriella change her circumstances?

I am fascinated with this notion. Not just the idea of changing circumstances, but of totally transforming who you are and divorcing yourself from your established destiny. However, I think most people do NOT change their circumstances. But once in a while you find those that do, and very often, those are the people who go on to do extraordinary things. I think Gabriella did not change her circumstances. She was afraid to do so, and many of her fears were justified. She did, however, learn how to accept people and issues and decisions very different from her own, and this in itself is a leap for someone like her. I like Gabriella. I think she's a decent human being who truly tries to do the right thing, and I think that with time, she will figure out exactly who she is and where she's going and will do what it take to get there. Helena, on the other hand, was on the verge of a dramatic change in her life and situation.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Leila Cobo

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Leila Cobo

"You know how, when you look at a picture so many times, you come to believe you've actually seen what's in the picture? ...I don't know if I remember her, or just the picture?" Do you think photographs do us an injustice? Do they provide us with "false memories?"

I believe they provide us with beautiful memories but also with false memories. There are so many pictures in my own photo albums that I've looked at so often, that I no longer know if my memory is a product of that picture or if things really happened as I still see them there, forever immobile. I love photographs, though. Perhaps even more than home movies. I am eternally fascinated by old photo albums, the ones with black paper where you paste the pictures, and I love to try and divine what these people were like. What were they thinking when the picture was taken? What lies behind their eyes, their intentions? There is something infinitely nostalgic and even a little bit sad about a picture inside a photo album.

And I am eternally surprised by the people I see in photographs and then, if I get to meet them, by the people themselves. I so often wonder, "I can't believe this person is the person in the photograph!" So, in a sense, photographs do us an injustice in that they can change people for better or for worse. But as the past fades, it's all we're left with in so many cases.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Leila Cobo

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Leila Cobo

Why did Gabriella's grandmother not get involved with the relationship with Angel? Was it strictly because she didn't want to lose Gabriella?

She was afraid of losing Gabriella, she was afraid of Marcus learning about Helena's past and she was also afraid of alienating Gabriella. Having lost a daughter, Nini is over protective, but she's also over-indulgent. She was very ambivalent about this, and most certainly, she felt guilty and torn. She somehow felt things would settle down on their own, but she didn't want to create an issue that would lead Marcus to curtail Gabriella's visit. She is trying to stay neutral, and having a hard time doing so.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Leila Cobo

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Leila Cobo

Music played an important role in this book. Why? Why is music so important in your life?

Aside from being a musician (although I rarely play the piano any more), I make a living from music and I'm married to a pianist! So music is a central part of my existence. It permeates everything I do, and when I write I often "hear" music in the background. This book in particular had that. So often I was writing a scene and it just needed to have the music in it, because I pictured the scene with the music. I think it's also part of it being set in Cali which is an extremely musical city, like Dublin or Rio, where music seems to burst out everything.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Leila Cobo

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Leila Cobo

Can you tell us what you are working on next?

I am pages (not chapters, mere pages!)away from finishing my second book, which I have tentatively titled The Finding. It's the story of a very young girl who gets pregnant, gives up her child in adoption and has the opportunity to transform herself. Yes, she changes her circumstances, but years later, her grown child returns to look for her and she must face who she was before.

Thank you for your wonderful questions!!

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Leila Cobo