A few months after appearing in Galician, we can also enjoy this great little story in Spanish. Known the taste of Manuel Rivas for squeezing the intrahistorical (and until the moment of being touched by his pen even anecdotally), we know that we are facing one of those committed and even compromising plots.
Writers like Manuel Rivas, Patricia Esteban Erles o Carlos Castan they belong to a lineage of narrators determined to cultivate narratives that are rather concise in development but intense in substance and form. In the case of Rivas and his reading girl, the context and its brilliant representation enliven a time that remains suspended in some limbo, awaiting what should be its repair or at least some learning.
At the beginning of the XNUMXth century, the city of A Coruña was a beacon of libertarian thought in Galicia. Athenaeums and neighborhood libraries were the gateway to the culture of the popular classes, worker solidarity flourished there and many people who had not been able to go to school learned to read.
At that time, women workers in tobacco and match factories fought to improve their living conditions, both on the streets and in the workshops. The powerful symbol of this movement of struggle and hope is illustrated by the readers who, during the working day, read books aloud to their colleagues. This is the story of Nonó, the reading girl.
His father collects rags and other knickknacks in the dumps of A Coruña, at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. His mother works making matches and is sick due to the unsanitary conditions in the factory. Thanks to the courage and imagination of her parents, Nonó manages to attend school and learns to read. From that moment on, she discovers that she can help her mother's companions, explaining stories to them while they work, giving them hope and opening the door to culture.
You can now buy «The reading girl», by Manuel Rivas, here:
