For Manuel Rivas, words are the most sensitive of creatures. In the same way that frogs or glow-worms are the first to manifest signs of pollution in the natural environment, words suffer as a result of corruption in the socio-political sphere. In his work as journalist, writer of fiction, poetry or essays, he is consistent in his role as custodian of all sensitive creatures; his writings document historical damage and alert us to potential future harm to our natural, linguistic and political eco-systems.
"Rivas is, without doubt, the most important figure (and the best known) in contemporary Galician literature [...]. His fictions bear the tone of an oral tale."
-Alberto Manguel
"Manuel Rivas is an important storyteller because he is sensitive and has an incredible ear, which, in his fiction, is allied to great integrity."
-John Berger
"Rivas is an indisputable classic"
-The Scotsman
"An author who knows how to introduce poetry, not only in his phrasing, but also in his way of seeing the world."
- Raphaelle Rerolle, Le Monde
Sprache
Verlagsort
Maße
Höhe: 229 mm
Breite: 152 mm
Dicke: 5 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-84861-623-3 (9781848616233)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Manuel Rivas was born in Coruna, Galicia, in 1957. He graduated in Media Studies at the Complutense University of Madrid and then worked as a journalist in the press, radio and television. As an author, he is best known for his seven novels and six collections of short stories. Five volumes have been published in English: The Carpenter's Pencil (2001, novel), In the Wilderness (2003, novel), Books Burn Badly (2010, novel), Vermeer's Milkmaid (2002, stories), Butterfly's Tongue (2000, stories). He is also a highly-regarded poet and essayist. All of his literary work is written in Galician. An edition of Rivas' poetry in Jonathan Dunne's English translation, From Unknown to Unknown (2009), brought together eighty of his poems, drawn from the collected edition published in Galician as Do desconecido ao desconecido in 2003.
His publications include: Libro do Entroido (1979), Balada nas praias do Oeste (1985), Mohicania (1987), Ningun cisne (1989), O pobo da noite (1996), A desaparicion da neve (2009); (fiction) Un millon de vacas (1989), Os comedores de patacas (1991), ?Que me queres, amor? (1996), O lapis do carpinteiro (1998), Ela, maldita alma (1999), A man dos painos (2000), Galicia, Galicia (2001), As chamadas perdidas (2002), Contos de Nadal (2003), Os libros arden mal (2006), Todo e silencio (2010), A boca de terra (2015).
Some of his work has been filmed in Spain: La lengua de las mariposas (Butterfly's Tongue), based on 3 interwoven stories contained in his collection Que me queres, amor? (Vermeer's Milkmaid in the English language edition), directed by Jose Luis Cuerda, and El lapiz del carpintero (The Carpenter's Pencil), directed by Anton Reixa.
