#galiza

vapor de luz

Fear.

I succumb to fear. My words get lost. Your absence takes me to already lived, already drunk, times where you had left me. Your abscence, just to imagine it, is not living.

Medos.

@quatregats asked me about Galizan books so I made a little post about it :)

You can find some of these in other languages, but most of them are only available in Galizan.

Memorias dun neno labrego (Xosé Neira Vilas)

Describes the childhood of a boy in rural Galiza in : work, games, death, festivities, migration and society through the eyes of Balbino, "a nobody", as he describes himself. The Real Academia Galega da Lingua will pay homage to its author, Xosé Neira Vilas, in the next Letras Galegas Day. Essential for understanding Galizan culture. There's an english version!

Circe ou o pracer do azul (Begoña Caamaño)

Now that there's all this talking about the Odyssey, Begoña Caamaño wrote a feminist retelling of it through the imagined letters exchanged between Circe and Penelope. Yeah I know there's a lot of greek mythology feminist retellings now but this one was published before the trend and it's really good. Begoña Caamaño died not long after publishing only two novels, at 50 years old. Also a celebrated author in the Letras Galegas Day last year.

As crónicas do sochantre (Álvaro Cunqueiro)

Something similar to the Canterbury Tales but set in Brittany and told by a Galizan author that was very much into magical realism – he might have invented it–, with that macabre sense of humor typical of Galizan culture.

A esmorga (Eduardo Blanco Amor)

A gay author telling a story about gender, class, masculinity, etc. in the one-crazy-night genre. And what a hell of night it was!

There's a film adaptation but they aged up the protagonists a lot and althought it is a good movie, this decision washed up the themes a little bit.

And there's an English version here.

***

And now, two children/young adult books that are very easy to read in Galizan but nonetheless very good and interesting.

A expedición do Pacífico (Marilar Aleixandre)

Adventures, 19th century tall ships, expeditions, scientists, gender trickery and all, packaged into story for young readers (I read it when I was like, 12). One more woman author, yay!

I've actually met Marilar Aleixandre months ago and had the occasion to tell her how much this book forged my personality back then.

Cartas de Inverno (Agustín Fernández Paz)

Very good horror story, a classic haunted house tale with lots of tension. Any AFP book is good, but this may be my favourite.

BONUS TIME:

De catro a catro (Manuel Antonio)

A poetry book dedicated to sea, sailing, loneliness and longing by another avant-garde queer author from the 20s.

There's been a Catalan and an English version of it but difficult to find now...