A symbolic, episodic novel that constitutes a disturbing elegy on the disappearance of certain ways of life. A metaphor for loss, the past and the passing of time.
The second part of the trilogy set in the Kingdom of Celama –an imaginary, desolate and rugged geographical area comprising a plain and a bleak plateau– created by the writer from León, Luis Mateo Díez, in the style of Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha and Juan Benet’s Región, with both of whom he has evident literary affinities.
The novel contains 68 short chapters. The majority of them are sketches or recollections about a life or an anecdote from the past, collected by the narrator, Ismael Cuende, who is determined to leave a chronicle of the region where he spent his life working as a country doctor, and of its people. It is significant that the novel is subtitled 'An obituary', a chronicle or fable of enigmatic, ghostly characters who are already dead.
Awards
Critics' Award for Narrative in Spanish (1999)
National Narrative Literature Award (2000)
