Book Day: Galicia through literature

Every April 23rd, book lovers gather in bookstores around the world to celebrate International Book Day. This year, coinciding with the date on Sunday, we propose five readings to travel around Galicia without leaving your home. We promise you will be even more eager to discover it!

The origin of Book Day dates back to the beginning of the last century in Catalonia. In 1923, the Valencian writer Vicente Clavel Andrés proposed to the Official Book Chamber of Barcelona to exalt the figure of the book. The proposal was approved by King Alfonso XIII in 1926, being celebrated for the first time on October 7 of the same year.

Four years later, the event would be definitively established on April 23rd. This day was chosen by the UNESCO General Conference to pay worldwide tribute to the book and its authors because of its symbolism. On this date, but in 1616, three well-known writers such as Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega died. It also coincides with the commemoration of the figure of Sant Jordi in places as distant as Aragon, Catalonia, Germany, Bulgaria, Portugal, the Netherlands, Mexico and Slovenia, among others.

Trece badaladas

Winner of the Spanish National Fiction Prize in 2003, Trece badaladas (2002) is a novel by Galician writer Suso de Toro and published by Edicións Xerais.

It tells the story of Celia, a writer from Santiago de Compostela, who repeatedly tries to submit a script to a film production company. After the initial difficulties to meet Xacobe, her director, she ends up meeting him and entering a supernatural and mysterious world in which the legend of the thirteen bells of the Berenguela, which would unleash the "hora do demo" in Compostela, is present, as well as the figure of Mestre Mateo.

We can also enjoy its cinematographic version, by Xavier Villaverde.

Fariña

Since its publication in 2015, it has been on everyone's lips. And the fact is that Fariña, the work of Nacho Carretero, not only has fifteen editions under its belt and a series on Netflix, but it is a faithful portrait of Galicia's relationship with drug trafficking.

The book is structured in twelve chapters in which he tells the history of drug trafficking in the community, from the beginnings of smuggling on the Costa da Morte and A Raia, through the 1980s, to the present day.

A Esmorga

Written by Eduardo Blanco Amor, A Esmorga was published in Buenos Aires in 1959 and in Galicia in 1970. The novel laid the foundations for later generations and was adapted to film, theater and adapted to other languages.

A Esmorga is about the revelry of three characters, Cibrán el Castizo, Xanciño el Bocas and Aladio Milhomes, and its terrible consequences. The plot takes place in Auria, literary representation of Ourense, in which we can find different references to Ourense spaces such as the bridge of As Burgas, the Church of Santa Eufemia or the Fonte do Rei, among others.

In fact, commemorating the book and the author, the route of A Esmorga has been created, which allows us to travel through the urban settings of the novel.

These are just some of the many examples that allow us to travel through Galicia through literature. And you, which book do you get lost in Galicia?