Writing like poetry, 18 Aug 2006
The Carpenter's Pencil is an amazing piece of writing. A friend of mine at work from Galicia recommended I read this writer. I am thankful she did!

Writing like poetry, 18 Aug 2006
The Carpenter's Pencil is an amazing piece of writing. A friend of mine at work from Galicia recommended I read this writer. I am thankful she did!



If you haven't yet, you should., 27 Mar 2004
Manuel Rivas is a painter of words. And he doesn't require many to paint pictures full of sense and sensuality, hope and despair, full of the basic elements that connect to all of our lives. He crafts his stories to utilize as little space as is necessary. If you can read Spanish translations of Gallego, do because they are brilliant. If you can't, read this. In any event, his talent transends language.

Poetic and compelling short stories, 07 Jan 2004
There is something interesting and different in all these well observed short stories about Galicia in North West Spain. The title piece is a touching tribute to the author's mother who is seen in the same light as Vermeer's milkmaid. A pageant of characters both young and old illuminate the other stories with fantastical results. Rivas certainly has his own distinctly quirky take on life which is heightened by his poetic writing and vivid imagination. These stories are an intoxicating prelude to his other books, but stand as important works of their own.

A very readable collection of short stories set in Galicia., 06 Mar 2002
These short stories have been translated from the original Galician and retain a strong flavour of that region of Spain. Rivas writes with great naturalness in a flowing style that is full of beautiful and striking figures of speech. He depicts a wide variety of situations in the different tales, but they are all very engaging and human and frequently involve an element of mystery or an unexpected twist. Although all the stories are quite short the author always has a powerful storyline and it is not surprising that episodes from the stories have been used in the making of the Spanish films "The Butterfy's Tongue" and "Vacas".

Widely received as one of the great recent literary debuts, Manuel Rivas's The Carpenter's Pencil is a supremely well-written and exquisitely translated love story. Principally set in the summer of 1936, at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, Rivas tells the tale of Doctor Daniel de Barca. A Republican and a revolutionary, the doctor is in love with Marisa Mallo, and she is totally in love with him. But family prejudice and the bitter, wrenching effects of the civil war keep them apart. Herbal, our narrator, a Francoist bully and soldier, has killed a Republican painter. As a keepsake he holds on to the artist's pencil and, as if not willing to be separated from it, the ghost of the painter remains with Herbal, whispering in his ear throughout the story. Herbal, himself in love with Marisa, follows the Doctor from prison to prison and tells Maria de Visitacao, who listens to him in the bar where they both now work, what he saw, what the prisoners said, and how the love between Daniel and Marisa deepened and managed to stay alive in those awful days.

Rivas' story is slight but the telling is magisterial, the depth utterly honest, his touch unerringly light, the resonances of his writing wide and the characterisation vivid: prose this poetic and this devoid of sentiment is as rare as it is breathtaking. War's abominable nature is the background to the work and its machinations move the Doctor away from Marisa, onto a train full of victims of TB and into a military hospital. Herbal is there all the way as guard, and witness, and occasionally as actor, intervening in ways he sometimes hardly understands himself. This is one of the first Galician novels to be translated into English and the book's sense of place adds wonderfully to the poignant work Rivas gets his relatively few words to achieve. The Carpenter's Pencil is a hugely moving, seductively readable, absolute triumph. --Mark Thwaite

Writing like poetry, 18 Aug 2006
The Carpenter's Pencil is an amazing piece of writing. A friend of mine at work from Galicia recommended I read this writer. I am thankful she did!



If you haven't yet, you should., 27 Mar 2004
Manuel Rivas is a painter of words. And he doesn't require many to paint pictures full of sense and sensuality, hope and despair, full of the basic elements that connect to all of our lives. He crafts his stories to utilize as little space as is necessary. If you can read Spanish translations of Gallego, do because they are brilliant. If you can't, read this. In any event, his talent transends language.

Poetic and compelling short stories, 07 Jan 2004
There is something interesting and different in all these well observed short stories about Galicia in North West Spain. The title piece is a touching tribute to the author's mother who is seen in the same light as Vermeer's milkmaid. A pageant of characters both young and old illuminate the other stories with fantastical results. Rivas certainly has his own distinctly quirky take on life which is heightened by his poetic writing and vivid imagination. These stories are an intoxicating prelude to his other books, but stand as important works of their own.

A very readable collection of short stories set in Galicia., 06 Mar 2002
These short stories have been translated from the original Galician and retain a strong flavour of that region of Spain. Rivas writes with great naturalness in a flowing style that is full of beautiful and striking figures of speech. He depicts a wide variety of situations in the different tales, but they are all very engaging and human and frequently involve an element of mystery or an unexpected twist. Although all the stories are quite short the author always has a powerful storyline and it is not surprising that episodes from the stories have been used in the making of the Spanish films "The Butterfy's Tongue" and "Vacas".

A Diamond of a Novel, 14 Jul 2001
This is a beautifully written book. Harvill have yet again found a tremendous writer and an excellent translator. Set amidst the brutality of the Spanish Civil War, this novel presents a wonderful love story. Throughout, the worst and the best of human behaviour is presented, and we see it mostly through the eyes of a prison guard whose life is transformed by the remarkable imprisoned doctor. It is a novel which I know I will have to read again soon because there is so much floating around the edges of the smooth prose. It reminded me of Captain Corelli but has something extra too. It is a shame that it does not last for longer, but on the other hand the novelist has controlled his story brilliantly whilst letting it breathe for itself. Buy this novel and you will not only get a wonderful read but you will be supporting Harvill in continuing to translate and publish excellent fiction.