Books Burn Badly

'This is an exceptional book by an exceptional writer... a unique literary enterprise' IndependentOn 19 August 1936 Hercules the boxer stands on the quayside at Coru a and watches Fascist soldiers piling up books and setting them alight. With this moment a young carefree group of friends are transformed into a broken generation. Out of this incident during the early months of Spain’s tragic civil war, Manuel Rivas weaves a colourful tapestry of stories and unforgettable characters to create a panorama of twentieth-century Spanish history. For it is not only the lives of Hercules the boxer and his friends that are tainted by the unending conflict, but also those of a young washerwoman who sees souls in the clouded river water and the stammering son of a judge who uncovers his father’s hidden library.As the singed pages fly away on the breeze, their stories live on in the minds of their readers.'Manuel Rivas reads like no-one else on the planet' Scotsman'A story of suspense that condemns authoritarianism and extols freedom... an author at the height of his powers' El Pa s'His boldest take yet on the war’s repercussions in his native Galicia& a work of unusual beauty' Financial Times'A novelistic tour-de-force...hauntingly poetic use of language and light touch...Rivas never loses faith in the human ability to overcome the bleakest of situations' Irish TimesRivas, Manuel is the author of 'Books Burn Badly', published 2011 under ISBN 9780099520337 and ISBN 0099520338.