Diego Garrido's '¡Adelante, cronófobos!' Explores Fear of Time

Diego Garrido (Madrid, 1997) has published '¡Adelante, cronófobos! Novela contra el tiempo (1997- )', a hybrid work blending autofiction, essay, and the commonplace book tradition. The novel confronts the fear of death and the passage of time, drawing on influences from Giacomo Leopardi's 'Zibaldone' to the 'Sudelbücher' of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Garrido's narrative incorporates cultural references from Josep Pla to Hu Bo, and features a 'table of eight chapters' for a history of human chronophobia. The work is described as a 'library of sentiment' and participates in the metanovela tradition from Cervantes to Vila-Matas. Garrido's previous book 'Libro de los días de Stanislaus Joyce' (Anagrama, 2024) also interrogated childhood effects and the crisis of meaning. The novel includes a paratext listing an 'alignment' of figures such as James Joyce, Proust, Victor Hugo, J. D. Salinger, Gabriel Ferrater, Víctor Erice, Hu Bo, and others. Garrido's style follows Enrique Vila-Matas's theory of the future novel: intertextuality, victory of style over plot, and a ruined moral landscape. The book also engages with egotism in the tradition of Montaigne, Unamuno, and Valéry. Personal relationships with Amanda and Patricia generate moving pages of poetic memory. The article also mentions Sergio C. Fanjul's 'Cronofobia' (Arpa, 2026) as a related work.