Susana Sanches Arins
Biography
Susana Sanches Arins is a high-school teacher in Galicia. She is the author of three poetry collections, the first of which, [de]construction, won the Xosé María Pérez Parallé National Poetry Prize in 2008, an award which includes publication of the collection by Espiral Maior. She is best known, however, for her narrative book seique (and they say), which escapes genre classification and recuperates memory of the victims of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and its aftermath. Only through remembering the atrocities of the past, committed by fellow citizens of a country, the author argues, can mourning be undertaken and the healing process begin. This book was first published in 2015, with a revised, enlarged second edition in 2019. It won the Narrative Prize at the Fifth Galician Book Gala in 2020.
Photograph © Marga Fraga
AND THEY SAY synopsis
and they say (240 pages) is a very popular book by Susana Sanches Arins about the reality and consequences of the Spanish Civil War. It has a second revised and enlarged edition dating to 2019 and was awarded the Narrative Prize at the Fifth Galician Book Gala in 2020. It is unusual in that the book is not made up of chapters, but of short fragments separated by blank lines. Also, the author does not use capital letters, so names are given lower case and there is no capital letter at the beginning of each sentence.
AND THEY SAY
[under]construction
stories are always being constructed. the words work like hands, setting brick after brick in its place.
a wall that protects us.
birthday
my father was born in 1949, the year after the war had come to an end. my mother came into the world in 1952 and the maquis still roamed the hills. the war seemed far away, but it was there.
and it is still there.
seams
i don’t know the whole story. i only recall, although this i do recall clearly, some scraps. not even scraps of the story, but rather the ones of the stories that grandma glória told about the story, or of the stories casilda struggles to remember that she heard from aunt ubaldina. how can you identify the links between one remnant and another? what stitch should you use? where should you cut the fabric? in fact, what cloth should be used? what is the right pattern?
is there a correct way to do it?
