What happens in the mountains stays in the mountains. The Galician forest is the territory of the Comanches in the latest novel by Manuel Rivas de La Coruña. A group of hunters ready to kill a legendary wild boar; a mother and daughter, hikers, who face a risky situation and are helped; the sparks of an argument that later arises around a bonfire, and that sends them both fleeing. And, at the same time, the transformation, over time, of the rural environment of Tras do Ceo – the territory, namesake of the book, in which the story takes place. Rivas spins one plot after another until it inevitably explodes; and, along the way, he dissects issues such as the desire for power, the coexistence of human beings with nature or the hierarchies imposed by patriarchal masculinity, all wrapped in the veil of the detective novel.
This Thursday, the writer held an open meeting in a cafeteria in Santiago to present his latest work, “Tras do ceo”, a novel that explores the limits and taboos that break real society on topics such as toxic masculinity, manipulation or the desire. feeling of power. Everything happens through the perspective of Dombodán, a historical character in Rivas’s story who, in this case, embodies the youngest member of a group of six friends, or acquaintances, who intend to hunt O Solitario, an albino wild boar infamous for having claimed. more than one victim. On their way, they meet a young woman and her mother, whom they help out of a dangerous situation, and the two groups end up fraternizing at the base camp. But a certain argument ends up leading to a verbal aggression and, immediately, both flee.
If the work has a protagonist, it is the region of Tras do Ceo, a “physical and literary territory”, in the words of the author; “a ‘bisbarra’, but also Galicia. A real and mental place, in which the imaginary is inscribed in geography. The setting in which the events take place has its own identity, which is revealed throughout the novel, when Dombo revisits his past in his mind. A practice that he does frequently, if not all the time, and in which the memory of the voice of his uncle and godfather, nicknamed O Outro, and his apparently infinite knowledge of the mountain, friendship and life, are always present, in general.
Rivas said that normally he feels concerned about the fate of a novel after its publication. But this time he is already satisfied: “I feel happy because I believe that a new and different species has been born. “There is more biodiversity.” He was talking about his book, but he was also making a nod to the theme of extinction, which affects us. Extinction of species, but also of values, both “due to predation.” Opposite, a recipe that the inhabitants of Tras do Ceo engrave in themselves: imagination, “not as an escape, but as a tool to understand the hidden part” of reality, to see “beyond.” This is what the characters, but also Rivas, are trying with his latest work. “In a way, writing can be the de-extinction of things,” he reflects.
Then, the writer defended that humor can also be present in literary genres like this; It is not for nothing that jokes and popular jokes are not lacking in the repertoires of his characters. For Rivas, “humor is also disappearing” and “we must recover this word of tradition when it serves to preserve what must be protected.” Towards the end of the act, the author acknowledges having felt limited by himself, when he wrote, when he represented scenes of aggression and violence. For the question of how, while respecting the subtlety of prose, to better narrate disturbing events. In this situation, he chose to reject “fear” and give free rein to his pen.
“Tras do Ceo”, by the Xerais publishing house, is now on sale in bookstores. On October 24, it will be available in Spanish, published by Alfaguara.
