Luiggi Sarrias, lecturer at the UIC Barcelona Faculty of Communication Sciences, recently published the novel La historia de Trece (The Story of Thirteen). The book, which he himself defines as autofiction, is a journey into the world of advertising through the eyes of Thirteen, a boy who finds himself without friends in a new city. A lecturer and marketing creative teaches him that advertising can give us answers to many aspects of our life, almost without us realising it.

“It is a book written without grand aspirations: it is not an epic work of literature. La historia de Trece is about spending an enjoyable time reading, discovering something that many people know or sense, which is that advertising reflects society,” Luiggi told us when interviewed.

How was the process of writing this novel? You say it is part autobiography.

I would describe it as autofiction in that one of the protagonists is very like me. The good thing is that being a novel I have been able to “make” myself better than I am. The process itself was simple, because at no time did I think I was writing a novel that would be published. It was a file of ideas that had some continuity on my computer that gave rise to the opportunity to talk about advertising in an informal way. It was a way of talking about good quality advertising while imagining that your listener is a child. One day I came up with an ending, which I found attractive, and then I began to think about the possibility of rewriting it as the book it is today.

Did this make it easier for you or the opposite?

I would say it has been more complicated than simply writing a book about marketing, because with this story I have been very transparent about things I think, what I do, what I say. I like this about the book, but at the same time I am a little embarrassed.

To follow your novel you need a mobile phone with QR reader. It's a novel idea.

There are books that teach a certain song or video, practical cookbooks, magic books, music books, and self-help books that rely on QR codes, but it is unusual for a novel. It is also necessary to keep in mind that the viewing of these codes is quite important to follow the plot of the book, otherwise a lot of interesting content is lost.

So it's a book for all audiences, but created with your students in mind.

This is the most difficult question. It is certainly intended for all audiences, but the fact that the protagonists are a university advertising lecturer and a young boy with bad luck makes it more accessible to students.

It's for all audiences, but I'd love my students to read it, because they can learn a lot, see ads they need to learn about, and spend an enjoyable time ‘mobile-book reading’ which I find interesting to combine from time to time.