Un millón de vacas

by Manuel Rivas

From the author of "Low Voices" and "The Carpenter's Pencil", the book of short stories that set him on his way and revolutionized Galician literature when it came out at the end of the 1980s. For the first time, Galician prose dealt with the Galician landscape in a modern context, uniting tradition and modernity, placing the poetry of landscape alongside the irony of modern society. In "One Million Cows", a collection of eighteen short stories by Manuel Rivas, the first he published, a boy tries to find out if his cousin is really a battery-operated robot, a sailor who has been shipwrecked at sea turns up dead in a local bar, the inhabitants of a village transport a young suicide so that he can be buried in an adjoining parish, a Galician who has recently returned from England dreams of building a golf course on the mud-flats of his childhood, and a prospective councillor is put off by the fish scales on a fishwife's hands. Manuel Rivas is Galicia's most international author, and once again the reader will be able to enjoy his striking metaphors, his commitment to what he writes, and his lingering eye for detail. Other titles in the series Small Stations Fiction "Polaroid" by Suso de Toro, " Tales from the Balkan Conflict" by Miguel-Anxo Murado and "Vicious" by Xurxo Borrazás.

118 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Manuel Rivas Barrós (born 24 October 1957 in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain) is a Galician writer, poet and journalist.

Manuel Rivas Barrós began his writing career at the age of 15. He has written articles and literature essays for Spanish newspapers and television stations like Televisión de Galicia, El Ideal Gallego, La Voz de Galicia, El País, and was the sub-editor of Diario 16 in Galicia. He was a founding member of Greenpeace Spain, and played an important role during the 2002 Prestige oil spill near the Galician coast.

As of 2017, Rivas has published 9 anthologies of poetry, 14 novels and several literature essays. He is considered a revolutionary in contemporary Galician literature. His 1996 book "Que me queres, amor?", a series of sixteen short stories, was adapted by director José Luis Cuerda for his film "A lingua das bolboretas" ("Butterfly's Tongue"). His 1998 novel "O lápis do carpinteiro" ("The Carpenter's Pencil") has been published in nine countries and it is the most widely translated work in the history of Galician literature. It also was adapted to cinema as "O Lápis do Carpinteiro".

Reviews

[maría · Rating 2 out of 5]

si que houbo algunhos relatos que me gustaron (moi poucos) pero en xeral non o desfrutei demasiado nin me suscitou absolutamente nada

[Alba · Rating 3 out of 5]

É un bo libro para comezar a ler en galego, ademais de ser un libro curto; o que o fai máis doado de ler e entender.

[Thisisnotmarta · Rating 4 out of 5]

o que máis me gustou despois de remuíño de sombras dos de narrativa si lo digo!!!
obvio hai relatos que meeeh, pero en xeral gustaronme mogollon heheheje o único non entendín porque elixiu de último un dos que (para min) son máis flojos

[marton · Rating 3 out of 5]

exceptuando un par de relatos, non me pareceu unha colección de relatos excesivamente destacable. vindo do lápis do carpinteiro, esperaba algo diferente e mellor construído.

[Alexandre Alphonse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catro vaquinhas douradas ou rubias galegas e non 5***** polo didactismo soso dalgúns contos (coma o freudiano «Que non quede nada» [sempre fracasarás na educación dos nenos, si]), o costumismo de telegaita («O domingo»), etcétera.

Meu tipo de conto ideal é máis intelectual (estilo Kafka, Borges...) ou poético (Motojiro Kajii, Kawabata...) que narrativo, político, anecdótico, humorístico... Pode soar pretencioso, pero eche o que hai.
Oscar Wilde misturou moi ben nos seus unha forte vontade de estilo cun importante fondo («O xigante egoísta» como o máis notábel exemplo disto).

Agás algunha frase brillante aquí e acolá («O cisne branco achegouse pedindo comida coa súa voz de porco» ou o derradeiro parágrafo do relato do artista), creo que Rivas peca (pra o meu gusto) dunha prosa aséptica que non se sostén pola sinxeleza do narrado (podo estar errado e as florituras facelo todo pior...)

Os meus 4 favoritos, por orde:
1) «O navegante solitario».
2) «Un millón de vacas».
3) «Un artista de provincias».
4) «Campos de algodón».

[Rosmona · Rating 5 out of 5]

O libro perfecto para o emigrante galego.

[Drius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pequeños relatos. Grandes historias.

[Olalla (Taylor’s Version) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fácil de leer y de comprender , no es la maravilla del mundo pero no está mal . Además , es corta

[Juan Garcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

no todos los relatos mercen estar en este libro

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Relatos curtos en galego, algúns mais turbios ou difíciles de entender ca outros. Ta ben, pero non me apasionou a sua lectura.

[Conchy García · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro muy muy recomendable

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contos curtos, dinámicos cheos de pura indiosincrasia galega e retranca