Y Llyfrgell

by Fflur Dafydd

Ar fore oer o Chwefror, yn y flwyddyn 2020, mae Dan, un o borthorion Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, wrthi'n cyflawni ei drosedd arferol yn erbyn y gyfundrefn. Yn ei gyfarch wrth y drws mae Eben, y cofiannydd, sy'n ysu am gael mynediad. Ond yn ddiarwybod i'r ddau, mae Ana a Nan, dwy lyfrgellwraig a'u bryd ar ddial, ar fin newid hanes Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru am byth.Mae'r nofel hon yn trawsnewid gofod tangnefeddus y Llyfrgell Genedlaethol yn set theatrig llawn posibiliadau - lle mae bwledi'n tarfu ar y tawelwch, yr Ystafell Ddarllen yn gell, a'r Llyfrgell ei hun yn un o wrth-arwresau mwyaf ein llên...ENILLYDD GWOBR GOFFA DANIEL OWEN 2009

253 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Fflur Dafydd is a novelist from Carmarthen who publishes in both Welsh and English. Since publishing her first novel, Lliwiau Liw Nos in 2005, she has published six fiction volumes. Two of her Welsh-language novels, Atyniad (Y Lolfa, 2006) and Y Llyfrgell (Y Lolfa, 2009) have been awarded the major fiction awards at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, the Prose Medal (2006) and the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize (2009), making her the only female writer, and the youngest writer to date to have won both awards. Her first English language novel, Twenty Thousand Saints (Alcemi, 2008) – an innovative reworking and adaptation of the Welsh-language novel, Atyniad, also won the inaugural Oxfam Hay Emerging Writer of the Year Award at the Hay Festival 2009. As a result of these successes, she was chosen by the British Council as the first ever Welsh participant in the prestigious, world-renowned International Writing Program at Iowa University. She also holds an MA in Creative Writing from UEA, a PhD from Bangor University, and currently lectures in Creative Writing at Swansea University.

She is also a prominent singer-songwriter, who has produced 4 albums to date – and she was awarded the title of ‘Female Artist of the Year’ in the BBC Radio Cymru awards in 2010. She performs regularly in Wales and has also appeared in major festivals in America and Europe.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book won an award in 2009 when it was published. The Daniel Owen Memorial award.

The title of this book translates as "The Library" and the story is set in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, a location I know very well. There is also perhaps a play on words in the title that is not evident in English. The Welsh for Library is literally "Llyfr cell", a book cell.

Welsh has the Latin word for cell, just as English does, although it is pronounced very differently (the C is hard and the LL is the Welsh LL sound, also found at the front of the word for book, Llyfr). However Welsh has not borrowed the word from English but from Latin, so it retains its sense of a small room, such as a monk's cell - and the monastic link shows where Llyfrgell no doubt comes from.

(Welsh uses the word "cell" elsewhere too, for instance in "oergell" - a fridge, or cold cell, and "rhewgell" - a freezer or frozen cell. Note also that Welsh grammar causes the mutation of cell to gell in these words. The G is hard).

So the play on words is this - this story is all about entrapment or confinement. The sense of a cell as we have it also in English is implied here, because the story is about an author trapped by dementia, her daughters trapped into lives that their mother chose for them and a man trapped by these daughters in the National Library, where they intend to kill him. Others also end up being trapped in a room in the library too. It is a recurring theme of the book.

The book is well written and the story is pretty good, but I had problems with it. The over-arching plot is just crazy. There is a murder plot that must be ranked as one of the stupidest murder plots in history, and when things start to go wrong and a security guard becomes aware of the plot, he promptly gets the award for the stupidest security guard in history.

Still, people do stupid things in real life, so maybe it is not so unrealistic, but there is no intricate plot here - just a gradually unfolding story with some minor twists.

[Sion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nofel gyffrous - digon i ddal sylw

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Digon diddorol, rhai darnau yn cydio, gweddill braidd fel y disgwyl

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

[English follows]
Gwych ar sawl lefel, er mod i ddim yn hoffi'r diweddglo llawer! Dyfodolaidd, ond dim cymaint a hynny chwaith - cyhoeddwyd yn 2009, lleolwyd yn 2020. Mae'r Llyfgrell Genedlaethol wedi cael gwared o lyfrau print yn ei stafelloedd cyhoeddus a dim ond e-lyfrau ac e-gyfnodolion sydd ar gael bellach, ac mae'r llyfrau prin wedi diflannu wrth i ddigideiddio mynd ymlaen. Yn ystod digwyddiadau'r nofel, mae un o'r gymeriadau yn darganfod bod y llyfrau prin yn dal yng ngwaelod yr adeilad, yn toddi mewn i'w seiliau. Dyfodolaidd efallai ond nid mor anghyson gyda rhai o syniadau sydd o gwmpas ym myd llyfrgelloedd ... (yn siarad fel llyfrgellydd nawr, well i mi beidio!) Mae modd darllen y nofel ar lefel thriller (y llyfrgell dan warchae, dwy chwaer sydd ar y staff yn cymryd mantais o absenoldeb y rhan fwyaf o staff diogelwch i gymryd drosodd). Mae dychan am y byd academaidd ac am feirniadaeth lenyddol yma, ac hefyd themau megis cof, cof cenedl, marwolaeth, marwolaeth y llyfr, galar a chamddefnydd pwer yn amlwg.

Futuristic novel set in 2020, published in 2009, about a day in the National Library of Wales. The Library has got rid of print books from its reading rooms and only ebooks and ejournals are available to read, and its rare books have disappeared during the digitisation project. During the events of the day, one of the characters discovers that the rare books are in fact still there in a cellar, literally melting into the fabric of the foundations of the building. Futuristic perhaps but not so far from some of the ideas which are around in the library world (speaking as a librarian!) This novel can be read as a thriller (the library is under siege, two sisters on the staff having taken advantage of the absence of most of the security staff to take over). Satire on the academic world and on literary criticism, themes such as memory, including the nation's memory, death, the death of the book, grief and the abuse of power. Not keen on the ending but this is very good.

[Gareth Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Llyfr bachog gyda nifer o themau diddorol.