The Five and I, by Antonio Orejudo

The protagonist of this novel, Tony, was a voracious reader of those series of books of «The five«. Between innocence and the revolution that reading was (and still is) in those early childhood years, reading any book always becomes a mark, a bookmark mark made in our own lives.

When you recover a book of the five it seems as if the bookmark of your life is still there, in the touch of its covers full of action and adventure. As the author himself indicates, a youthful reading is rediscovered under a very different prism at maturity, revealing undetected nuances at the time, aspects not always fortunate. But the important thing is that link with another time, which in turn links with another prism of life.

In an already grown-up character, who revisits those moments of adolescence with the exactness of an author who has passed through the splendor of the "The Five" books, one guesses that autobiographical point, an own desire to recover so many sensations.

Firstly, Toni would like to regain inspiration. And with it the motivation to write his outstanding novels and to teach his students, convinced at all times of what he transmits. The problem for Toni is that all those readings of The Five accompanied times of Spanish transition that promised to turn him and his generation companions into something that they have not become.

It is not about nostalgia or melancholy, it is about that, perhaps what all that generation of readers of The Five wanted to become was really not to be older. Hence, Toni returns to look for his place in fiction, despite the fact that his reality may be made a few foxes.

You can now buy The Five and I, the latest novel by Antonio Orejudo, here: