Portico of Galician Literature
  • Home
  • Writers
  • Books in English
  • History
  • Rights
  • Translation Grants
  • Contact

Writers

  • Xavier Alcalá
  • Marilar Aleixandre
  • Fran Alonso
  • Diego Ameixeiras
  • Rosa Aneiros
  • Anxo Angueira
  • Xurxo Borrazás
  • Begoña Caamaño
  • Marcos Calveiro
  • Marica Campo
  • Xosé Carlos Caneiro
  • Fina Casalderrey
  • Francisco Castro
  • Cid Cabido
  • Fernando M. Cimadevila
  • Alfredo Conde
  • Ledicia Costas
  • Berta Dávila
  • Xabier P. DoCampo
  • Pedro Feijoo
  • Miguel Anxo Fernández
  • Agustín Fernández Paz
  • Elena Gallego Abad
  • Camilo Gonsar
  • Xabier López López
  • Inma López Silva
  • Antón Lopo
  • Manuel Lourenzo González
  • Andrea Maceiras
  • Marina Mayoral
  • Xosé Luís Méndez Ferrín
  • Xosé Monteagudo
  • Teresa Moure
  • Miguel-Anxo Murado
  • Xosé Neira Vilas
  • Emma Pedreira
  • Xavier Queipo
  • María Xosé Queizán
  • Anxo Rei Ballesteros
  • María Reimóndez
  • Manuel Rivas
  • Antón Riveiro Coello
  • Susana Sanches Arins
  • María Solar
  • Anxos Sumai
  • Abel Tomé
  • Suso de Toro
  • Rexina Vega
  • Domingo Villar
  • Iolanda Zúñiga

Xosé Monteagudo

Biography

xosembioXosé Monteagudo works for the Inland Revenue and writes novels in which intrigue is mixed with underhand dealings, and voices arrive from the past to reconstruct a story. He is the author of five novels to date: The Voices of the News (2002), This Story (2006), A Smart Guy (2009), The Curious World of Normal People (2012) and Everything We Were (2016). The Voices of the News and A Smart Guy were awarded two of the three main Galician fiction prizes: the Blanco Amor and the García Barros. Everything We Were is considered a milestone in modern Galician literature and has impressed readers and critics alike, being awarded the San Clemente Prize (the only literary prize in Galicia to be adjudged by high-school pupils) and the Gala do Libro Prize.

EVERYTHING WE WERE synopsis

Everything We Were (534 pages) is divided into six parts, and is narrated by a range of voices, including a schoolteacher, a detective fiction writer, an orphan girl, a Galician emigrant in Argentina and a historian.

Read more...

EVERYTHING WE WERE

My mother’s last letter arrived three months after her death. When I opened the postbox and collected the day’s mail, among all the letters from the bank and the advertising leaflets, I was surprised to see an envelope with my address printed in block letters. I read the opening sentence (that unusual and unsettling “Dear Son”) and turned the handwritten page over. I confirmed that the message ended with the nervous, Gothic features of my mother’s signature, picked up the envelope again and searched for a return address, but there wasn’t one.

To begin with, I calculated she must have posted the letter shortly before dying and the letter had been sitting in post offices for the last three months, but when I paid attention to the postmark, I realized the letter had suffered no delay between being deposited in a postbox in Pontevedra and reaching my hands in London. At this point, I started to think that the paper I held in front of me was a posthumous act with which my mother intended to interfere in my life.

I had to admit, as well, that this gesture was quite in keeping with the attitude I had observed in her during the last months of her life. Something that had arisen as a result of her learning about her illness. I remember when she told me, she did so without any of the petty insults or fierce ironies with which she was in the habit of rebuking my decisions. This time, she opted to call me in London and ask in a serene voice when I was planning to pay her a visit. Given that she didn’t reveal her motive or even hint that the question contained an element of urgency, I postponed the meeting for another month.

When I finally paid her a visit one weekend, the message with which she received me was like a whiplash across the back.

“I only have a few months to live,” she informed me in a neutral, almost distant tone, as if referring to someone she didn’t hold in high esteem.

Read more...
Back to top

Copyright for all materials on this site remains with their authors.
© 2022 Portico of Galician Literature

  • Home
  • Writers
  • Books in English
  • Contact
created by bettermonday