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Que veinte años no es nada
El famoso escritor Cósimo Herrera, eterno candidato a un Nobel que no llega nunca, decide retirarse a Ribanova, una pequeña ciudad de provincias apartada y brumosa. Allí conocerá a Luisa, una muchacha veinte años más joven, y que desde el primer momento sentirá por el forastero un amor tan apasionado como imposible.
- GenresFiction
365 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 21, 2025
La prosa es cuidada, envolvente, con ese tono que invita a leer despacio y disfrutar de las descripciones tanto como de las emociones que atraviesan a los protagonistas. Es innegable que está muy bien escrita y que tiene momentos de gran belleza literaria.
Sin embargo, confieso que iba con otras expectativas: esperaba quizá más intensidad narrativa, más giros inesperados o un pulso distinto en el ritmo. En lugar de eso, me encontré con una novela más serena y contemplativa, centrada en la nostalgia y en la reflexión sobre el paso del tiempo.
En definitiva, es un libro recomendable para quienes disfruten de las historias intimistas y atmosféricas, pero tal vez no encaje del todo con quienes busquen una trama vertiginosa o cargada de sobresaltos.
👉 Una novela elegante y melancólica que nos recuerda que, por mucho que digamos lo contrario, veinte años sí son algo.
Sin embargo, confieso que iba con otras expectativas: esperaba quizá más intensidad narrativa, más giros inesperados o un pulso distinto en el ritmo. En lugar de eso, me encontré con una novela más serena y contemplativa, centrada en la nostalgia y en la reflexión sobre el paso del tiempo.
En definitiva, es un libro recomendable para quienes disfruten de las historias intimistas y atmosféricas, pero tal vez no encaje del todo con quienes busquen una trama vertiginosa o cargada de sobresaltos.
👉 Una novela elegante y melancólica que nos recuerda que, por mucho que digamos lo contrario, veinte años sí son algo.
July 20, 2023
Libro fav segunda lectura
April 22, 2020
Ya había leído otros libros de esta autora. Éste me parece redondo. Los personajes secundarios son tanto o más interesantes que los principales. Casi se podría decir que es como la historia interminable donde una historia enlaza con otra y con otra y... ¡Me ha encantado!
August 22, 2022
De momento es el único libro que he leído dos veces y que me encantaría olvidar rápidamente para volver a leerlo cada año. Es un libro que me apasiona, me enternece, me despierta sentimientos nostálgicos de día de lluvia. Lo amo.
December 30, 2021
Lo reconoció y lo aceptó tal como era, en su tristeza innata y su humor sombrío, en sus manías y en la interminable legión de caprichos que debía haber acumulado después de vivir tanto tiempo consigo mismo.
December 11, 2020
Una historia de amor entre una joven y un escritor q aspira al novel... agradable de leer
February 27, 2014
In the realm of film luminaries such as Ingmar Bergman and Carl Theodore Dreyer have tackled the theme of the male artist, or practitioner, so focussed on his art or work that effectively he is blind to emotional needs, both his own and those of the people who mean most to him in the world. Bergman himself used the term 'emotional cripples' to describe such unfortunates.
Cósimo Herrera, the writer in Marta Rivera De La Cruz's Twenty Years Is Nothing is cut from the same cloth. Ever near but ever so far from gaining the ultimate success any writer - or at least one of his ilk - could aspire to, he is, at the age of forty-three, in a rut. The lukewarm reaction to his most recent novel is one reason he has lost the drive of the past and is now suffering major writer's block.
In a bid to recharge the batteries he accepts an invitation to take up temporary residence in the Spanish provincial town of Ribanova. Nothing much changes for Cósimo at first. His disquiet being as much personal as professional, he finds himself as isolated and lonely as ever in the all embracing quiet. More than one failed relationship has marked his life. It is, we understand, his emotional distance and obsession with obtaining the writing world's crowning garland that has played a major part in causing them to flounder.
But he gradually adapts to the provincial locale and soon assumes the task of tutoring 20-year-old Luisa, a local girl, the promise of whose budding intelligence is not lost on anyone. Recognising in him a kindred soul, Luisa falls instantly and irredeemably in love with the big name, big city writer. But is Cósimo even aware of her passionate feelings for him, let alone able to respond to them?
The author has read her magical realism. The technique of talking about a character in the present and then in the next breath commenting on what they will be 'many years later' is often employed. Some may also feel a tad lost now and again in the byroads of the array of sometimes fantastical characters who populate her world, though having said that they are never less than interesting.
But none of this takes away from the fact that Twenty Years Is Nothing is a beautifully written, touching novel about missing the wood for the trees, a novel that closes on a devastating, crushingly ironical note.
Cósimo Herrera, the writer in Marta Rivera De La Cruz's Twenty Years Is Nothing is cut from the same cloth. Ever near but ever so far from gaining the ultimate success any writer - or at least one of his ilk - could aspire to, he is, at the age of forty-three, in a rut. The lukewarm reaction to his most recent novel is one reason he has lost the drive of the past and is now suffering major writer's block.
In a bid to recharge the batteries he accepts an invitation to take up temporary residence in the Spanish provincial town of Ribanova. Nothing much changes for Cósimo at first. His disquiet being as much personal as professional, he finds himself as isolated and lonely as ever in the all embracing quiet. More than one failed relationship has marked his life. It is, we understand, his emotional distance and obsession with obtaining the writing world's crowning garland that has played a major part in causing them to flounder.
But he gradually adapts to the provincial locale and soon assumes the task of tutoring 20-year-old Luisa, a local girl, the promise of whose budding intelligence is not lost on anyone. Recognising in him a kindred soul, Luisa falls instantly and irredeemably in love with the big name, big city writer. But is Cósimo even aware of her passionate feelings for him, let alone able to respond to them?
The author has read her magical realism. The technique of talking about a character in the present and then in the next breath commenting on what they will be 'many years later' is often employed. Some may also feel a tad lost now and again in the byroads of the array of sometimes fantastical characters who populate her world, though having said that they are never less than interesting.
But none of this takes away from the fact that Twenty Years Is Nothing is a beautifully written, touching novel about missing the wood for the trees, a novel that closes on a devastating, crushingly ironical note.
May 24, 2012
Primer libro leido de Marta Rivera, he salido encantado de la forma que tiene de describir cada detalle de las situaciones o personajes independientemente de su importancia en la novela.
Engancha de principio a fin
Engancha de principio a fin
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December 20, 2016"Una historia lleva a otra y ésta a la siguiente, y se teje una red de vidas y de biografías, mezcla de presentes y pasados, ciudades, paisajes y desvíos que siempre se terminan cruzando". Más en https://capitulocuarto.wordpress.com/...
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews