Dear Caminoheads,

Sunday in this latitude has been wet since it started and it continues to rain. It was sort of the perfect day to do nothing, or actually to do something: to rest.

And rest included lots of newspaper reading, mostly newspapers from Spain that published many articles about Almudena Grandes’s death. Probably you have never heard about this woman, she was a Spanish writer with an exquisite prose, a sharp mind, a huge love for words, who was a historian and a geographer, but also has the gift to translate feelings and experiences in words like no other, and had also a strong personality with very clear ideas about politics (she was a “roja”) and citizenship.

Her books tell Spanish history and the story of the women as the war, the famine, the dictatorship of Franco were taking place. As you know, my country has been “made” by the Spanish and Italians mainly (we also had large immigration from Jewish, Armenian, Polish, etc.) and many of our ancestors came to my country from the Spain that Almudena described in her books. One journalist wrote today that she was “the memory of the memory”, and that makes a lot of sense.

I know that some of Almudena’s books are translated into English, but I am hesitant to recommend them to you because I do understand that they might make sense to me because my country, culture and ancestors are so close to that Spain, but I am sure that her prose would captivate you too.

I got to know Almudena because of “L”, a work colleague that turned a good friend of mine, she handed me the first book I read of Almudena. But she is not the only friend I have who I get to know because of books. I became friends with “E” by googling a poem and E happened to post in his blog; after a couple comments exchanged, we became friends. “W” is another of my books friend, he is actually an oncologist dedicated to science, but it wasn’t the work we were doing together what made us friends, but our love for books… I think our conversations have always started with a “How are you doing? What are you reading these days…?” And these are just three, I have other books-made friends!

I once listened to a psychiatrist say that the biggest error in a life is to underestimate the power and impact that art -be it music, painting, sculpture, poetry, prose, films, etc. has in the human journey, in moving from one place to another, from darkness to light, from the brain to the heart, from the inside to the outside… There is a transformation that happens with some of the books we read (and surely with other arts), I know this is true for me… And I know it is true for Almudena’s books… and for Phil’s writing here too…

Always with a book in hands Loves,

Cris

http://www.newspanishbooks.us/read-report/las-tres-bodas-de-manolita

Health report update: feeling much better, still some coughing and tiredness, but definitely way better than these past days. Thank you all for your wishes and messages! <3