Qalam an-najjar

Manuel Rivas was born in La Coru a (Galicia), the Atlantic city, in 1957. While he was still in high-school, he started working nights, unpaid, at a newspaper. He graduated in Media Studies at the University of Complutense in Madrid and then has worked as a professional journalist in different areas of the press, radio and television. Rivas is one of the founders of Greenpeace Spain and was on its first board of directors. His work is originally published in Galician. Manuel Rivas is without doubt one of the most important contemporary Spanish authors. From novels, short stories and children's booksto poetry, plays and essays, he covers every genre, varying his stylistic methods between the colloquial language of the man on the street in his Galician homeland and a more lyrical tone. Manuel Rivas has been heralded as one of the brightest in a new wave of Spanish writers less influenced by magic realism and more by Spanish and European traditions, as well as by the unique history of Spain over the past seventy years. His literature gives voice to the memory of the wounds suffered by the body, land, and language.

I have learned more about the Spanish Civil War by reading The Carpenter's Pencil by Manuel Rivas than through all the history books. -- Gunter Grass, Nobel Prize of Literature 1999 A strange and haunting novel... a sincere and beautiful portrait of a brutal, ugly period of Spanish history. The Guardian El l piz del carpintero brings together the taste of popular legends from around the world Paris Match A profound tale of love, art, politics and the lingering effects of a gentleness and cruelty on the soul The Miami Herald A startling novel. I have rarely read a piece of writing so poetic Daily Telegraph The novel is magnificently structured... The language is rich... one of the best Spanish novels of recent years. It tells a story of great emotional power and speaks movingly of the ability of moral principle to resist fascism Times Literary Supplement Rivas is a superb stylist in the Spanish tradition of less is more Washington Post Magnificent Le Monde