A romance to be tasted and appreciated like a good confectionery sweet. Through a gastronomic journey to excite the palate, and strong female characters to warm the heart, psychologist Senia Reñones talks to readers about the particularities, challenges and surprises of life. “Chocolate Meio Amargo” alludes to the intense flavor of losses and guilt carried over time, and highlights the opportunity to see what is sweet in learning, new beginnings and love.
This mouth-watering story begins in the early days of the Smith family – late 19th century – when the Englishman Richard arrives in Brazil and becomes a large coffee producer. The family farm and lands are later inherited by the patriarch’s granddaughter, Mary, the only survivor. A precocious widow, she takes on the crucial role of raising her granddaughter Anna, while her daughter Lara struggles to recognize herself as a mother.
The relationship between Mary and Anna develops in the farm kitchen, but also between trips to France and Spain, and the culinary delights of these countries. This relationship with gastronomy makes Anna a brilliant Pâtissier chef , passionate about flavors, fragrances and colors. However, destiny always holds surprises and Anna finds herself responsible for raising her younger brother Ricardo, as her grandmother did, which imposes limitations on her love life.
The connection to food seems to play a significant role in the plot of your book. How does this relationship between characters and cuisine influence the development of the plot?
When starting to have the first ideas, the first thoughts about the book, the protagonist was already conceived, created, as a pastry chef. Two films helped me to materialize Anna, the first was Chocolate, a film with Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, and the second was Stranger Than Fiction. In both films, there is a female figure who sweetens and enchants lives through gastronomy, and that is how I created the protagonist of my book, making Anna learn and improve cooking with as much pleasure, as she improved personal relationships, mixing , composing your life, as if composing a song, where people, their relationships, and their loves, were the harmony, the sugar, the flour, and the creation of recipes, were the melody, and the combination of the two, the rhythm that rocked and gave meaning to his life.
The title “Semi-Bitter Chocolate” suggests a metaphor for the nuances of life. Could you share more about how this analogy is explored throughout the story?
So that I can explain the title of the book, I need to tell you something personal, I don’t like semi-sweet chocolate, I like milk chocolate, and I believe that when I eat semi-sweet chocolate I try to think that this chocolate is not so bad, however , this conviction only lasts a few seconds, and soon after, I reaffirm my predilection for milk chocolate. When thinking about the title of the book, I wanted a name that would elucidate, illustrate the content, and when thinking about how difficult it is for me to like dark chocolate, I realized that it was a perfect title, that our lives are often exactly So, life “pushes” pieces of semi-sweet chocolate into our mouths, in fact into our lives, and we try to convince ourselves that it’s not that bad, and then, finally, admit that we prefer chocolate to milk, but, with Often, we have to settle for the bittersweet, and so I chose the title Half-Bitter Chocolate, thinking about this analogy, what life gives us, or being that most of the time, it’s not what we expect, quite the opposite , is much more bitter, but we have to learn to like it, or learn to deal with the bitter taste in our mouth, literally and metaphorically speaking.
The book seems to address complex themes, such as overcoming, immigration, death and self-acceptance. How did you balance these sensitive themes with the characters’ emotional journey?
When I had the idea of writing the book, the first thing I thought about was the protagonist, as I already said, then I started structuring the story in my head, as if it were a skeleton, the beginning, middle and end, however, when I started to writing, other ideas began to emerge, and so, I realized that writing is similar to a magician who takes colored handkerchiefs out of his mouth, we don’t know what color will come, nor how long he will remain in that magic, in the same way there is an intertwining between characters, story and the themes covered, everything is together, at the same time that the cadence of the plot unfolds, each character is being created with their peculiarities and particularities, and the journey of each one, permeates, and intertwining with the story, and vice versa.
Her experience as a clinical psychologist for three decades certainly influenced the construction of the characters. How did you apply this knowledge to create realistic and imperfect characters?
I love my profession, and after three decades as a psychologist, I learned that in addition to all my work as a therapist, one thing that fascinates me are stories, and how each patient lived and lives, with all that plot, feelings, and events. of a life, and of course all this richness is present in the construction of the characters, and in the story, after all, art imitates life, or is it the opposite?
Female protagonism is one of the focuses of your novel. Could you share how you explored this theme and highlight the role of female characters in the story?
I believe that I will not be able to write stories, where the protagonist is a man, because I start from the assumption of my own experiences, and my feelings, to create the profile, the personality of the characters, therefore, I believe that the protagonists of my books, will always be women, another important detail, the most important, striking and unforgettable woman in my life is my mother, I believe that all the protagonists have and will have a little bit of her.
The influence of authors such as Gabriel Garcia Márquez, José Saramago and Isabel Allende is mentioned. How did these authors inspire your narrative and the creation of the characters?
I deeply admire these three authors, I believe that each one in their own way is unique, incomparable and stunning. I am especially amazed at Saramago, and Gabriel Garcia for the genius, for the originality with which they write, I believe that when reading a book, this aspect of genius is very rare to find, when we read a book and we are amazed at the way it is told that story, that is a privilege, and it becomes unforgettable. These three authors just give me courage and inspiration with their genius and unforgettable creations.
LGBTQIAP+ representation seems to be an important element in your novel. Could you talk more about Ricardo’s journey of self-acceptance and how it relates to the main story?
The character Ricardo already existed in the plot from the beginning, when I say in one of the questions above, that before I started writing, the skeleton of the story is in my head, this character was inserted from the beginning, the characteristic of him being homosexual It happened later, I found it interesting that he was so handsome, so seductive, and broke with the heteronormative profile. I believe it is pertinent that we use the media, including books, to talk about the issues that need to be discussed and debated.
In addition to the emotional elements, the book also appears to touch on themes of immigration. What message do you hope to convey through these intertwined stories?
My parents are immigrants, my father was Argentine, my mother is Spanish, they both came to Brazil as adults, I spoke Spanish at home throughout my early childhood, I spoke Portuguese at school, and from that experience I started speaking Portuguese at home. I know several cities in Argentina and Spain, because my father’s passion was traveling. A good part of my history is marked in my DNA, as genetic inheritance, and another good part comes from travel, so immigration, the notion that the divisions of countries are often only on maps, they are geographical, others Sometimes, the heritage of belonging to a country is irreplaceable, I experienced this many times, watching my mother suffer from having to spend Christmas at 30 degrees Celsius, whereas for her Christmas had been minus 20 degrees all her life. In the book, immigration is part of the story, as it was part of my life, and traveling, and getting to know customs, habits and cuisine only makes us great as human beings, as it also made the characters in my book great.
What was the transition like from your practice as a clinical psychologist to writing a novel? What were the challenges and rewards in this change of field?
I have always read a lot, it has always been a practice that gave me great pleasure, it is a common habit in my family. And I read a lot to my son when he was little, and sometimes he asked me to make up stories from my head, and on some occasions, he liked these stories so much, that I told them many times, adding new characters, etc. , and one of these stories It really turned out very beautiful, and I started thinking about the possibility of writing it, and so I did, and as I progressed, other ideas emerged, as if I had opened up a field of new creativity, and the thoughts began to come into order. , until I started writing and gave vent to my ideas, and it was like I said before, it was like the magician who pulls colored handkerchiefs from his mouth, one tied to the other, one idea pulls another, and I wrote Chocolate Half Bitter .
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