Marta Jiménez Serrano, author of ‘Oxígeno’: “If we don’t have soil from which to start, it is very difficult to build a home” | Culture

It would be complex not to have “class fury,” as Alana Portero noted, after seeing death so closely. The event happened to the writer Marta Jiménez Serrano (Madrid, 35 years old) five years ago, when she almost fell into a coma after being poisoned by carbon monoxide from the boiler in her rental apartment. At that time, Jiménez had to suffer the absolute ineffectiveness of his former landlady, who ignored the periodic check-ups. In addition to the demanding conditions of the rental contract, the author still resonates with the echo of a phrase from the owner: “What I want is not to have to take care of anything.”

Jiménez Serrano reflects on the housing crisis, the neglect suffered and the subsequent trauma, but also on intimacy, love and friendship in his new book, Oxygen (Alfaguara, 2025). And he talked about all this with a group of subscribers at the latest EL PAÍS Reading Club, held last Tuesday, March 10.