The state, a foreign university, his widow’s nephews? After fiercely defending the work of her late husband for 37 years, Maria Kodama died of cancer on March 26 without leaving a will. RFI met his lawyer in Buenos Aires.
With our correspondent in Buenos Aires, Theo Conscience
Borges, who died in June 1986 in Geneva, had married her two months before his death and had no children. Maria Kodama, who was herself a writer, a longtime collaborator of the writer, died on March 26 in Buenos Aires at the age of 86. When he learns that she left no will, her lawyer Fernando Soto falls out of his chair. ” I couldn’t believe it because she had told me years ago that she had put her affairs in order and that her heir would be even stricter than her. “, he says.
All the more surprising since Maria Kodama had been the fastidious and demanding guardian of Borges’ work for years and had already expressed her intentions. ” Recently, she told me that Japanese and American universities would be in charge of the work, he says. But she always chose her words carefully, and she never said to me, “I made my will.” She said to me: “I have put my affairs in order”. »
nephews
A wish that she would have renewed on her deathbed, without having time to lay it down in black and white. In the absence of a will and a known heir, the work of Borges would belong to the state, which neither he nor Maria Kodama would have wanted, according to Fernando Soto. ” If there were heirs, they had to appear quickly, because I was afraid that the state would inherit everything, which would have been a disaster in my opinion. And amazingly, heirs who were in Buenos Aires showed up in less than 24 hours. »
Five nephews in all, the children of Maria Kodama’s deceased brother, whose existence she had never mentioned to either her lawyer or her friends. What will they do with the work of the author of Fiction or Brodie’s report ? Will they grant the wish formulated by their aunt before dying? Unlikely, according to Fernando Soto, who also does not rule out a new twist. “ A thousand things can still happen! »