All Is Silence

Description

Manuel Rivas delivers a literary masterpiece about three young friends growing up in a community which is bound by a conspiracy of silence Manuel Rivas delivers a literary masterpiece about three young friends growing up in a community which is bound by a conspiracy of silence Fins and Brinco are best friends, and they both adore the wild and beautiful Leda. The three young friends spend their days exploring the dunes and picking through the treasures that the sea washes on to the shores of Galicia. One day, as they are playing in the abandoned school on the edge of the village, they come across treasure of another kind- a huge cache of whisky hidden under a sheet. But before they can exploit their discovery a shot rings out, and a man wearing an impeccable white suit and panama hat enters the room. That day they learn the most important lesson of all, that the mouth is for keeping quiet.

Manuel Rivas was born in A Coruna in 1957. He writes in the Galician language of north-west Spain. He is well known in Spain for his journalism, as well as for his prize-winning short stories and novels, which include the internationally acclaimed The Carpenter's Pencil and Books Burn Badly. His works have been translated into more than twenty languages.

An energetic - and energising - writer * Sunday Business Post (Ireland) * [A] haunting, poetic novel -- Michael Kerrigan * Guardian * One of the finest tours de force published anywhere, in any language -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times * In this haunting, wonderfully poetic novel, Rivas gives us eloquent warning that what starts as fearful silence may end up as an incapacity to speak -- Michael Kerrigan * Guardian * Rivas, ably translated here by Jonathan Dunne, combines a lyric gift, full of rich imagery and a touch of fantasy, with bald, direct prose * Independent *