When we still long for the missing Ana Maria Matute, the Planeta publishing house has prepared an interesting volume with some of his most representative works.
A set of three novels from the most intense and delicate Matute universe. A trilogy already configured like this in its beginnings but presented this time with all the honors of the single compact volume.
First memory, developed with the Civil War in the background. And in that gray, diffuse and disconcerting background we accompany the last childhood of Matía and Borja that, especially in the case of Matía, represents an unreal exit from the crisis to contemplate a world where it is barely possible to shine. The orphan girl wants to be the strong woman, capable of breaking through in a hostile world just for the sake of it, a world where adults cut off and mutilate what little naivety she may have left.
Soldiers cry at night: The war is already ending and among the personal debris the losses are assumed. The souls of the people try to rise again as the victors recount the epic of impending victory. And again the children forced to stop being so. Marta and Manuel look at the end of the war for a missing hero in which to find some light between the atrocity.
The trap: We enter a typical family. The desolation of war gives way to a new paradigm of basic institutions such as the family. Between resentment and interests, between passions and fear of the recent conflict. Experiences under the fascinating prism of Ana María Matute.
«First memory, a novel "distant and close to a time, perhaps more feared for being invisible", Nadal Prize 1959, narrates the passage from childhood to adolescence of Matia - the main character - and her cousin Borja. The soldiers cry at night, written in 1963 and winner of the Fastenrath Prize from the Royal Spanish Academy, this majestic story revolves around the figure of a mysterious missing soldier, Jeza. The trap is an ambitious work that shares some characters, it is an autonomous novel that reveals monologues, restless and vibrant around the preparations for a party to celebrate a centenary. With the Spanish civil war as a background, these three autonomous novels that are part of a whole are an exceptional sample of the unique narrative universe of Ana María Matute »
You can now buy the volume The Merchants, the most anticipated compilation of Ana María Matute, here: