En salvaje compañía

En salvaje compañía by Manuel Rivas is a rich tapestry of stories that weaves together the mythic space of Galician literature with something profoundly contemporary: the feeling of loss. The hidden circles of reality emerge as spirals of smoke, revealed in unforgettable poetic images, yet also in gusts of wind and rain, in storms that unveil disturbing secrets and moving lives. In this novel, three hundred crows drawing the landscape of the sky are the poets-warriors of the last king of Galicia. A priest, Don Xil, explains to a young farm girl, Rosa, that the beautiful women depicted on the church walls are portraits of sinners. A rat, Matacáns, a cunning hunter in his first life, is caught by a cat that turns out to be the gaitero and anarchist Arturo de Lousame. A bat, Gaspar, recounts his suicide to a lizard who is on pilgrimage to San Andrés de Teixido... All speak. People and animals recreate the universal identity of feeling, journeying from the past to the present against adversity. Their voices, made of humour and tenderness, intertwine to form this great novel.