Books Burn Badly

Manuel Rivas writes with lyrical depth about the burning and pillaging of books whose existences are intertwined with a story of suspense that condemns authoritarianism and extols freedom... A novel that could have been history or biography, but is instead a work of literature written by an author at the height of his powers.

Jordi Gracia, El País

The author reinvigorates the power of the word, the heritage of stories which pass from generation to generation.

Emma Rodríguez, El Mundo

It's time for reviewers and sundry pundits to quit the flattering comparisons with Lorca, Joyce and Garcia Marquez. Manuel Rivas reads like no-one else on the planet...one of those novels to lavish on friends... Manuel Rivas' sweeping novel, translated into English for the first time, is an undoubted classic

Scotsman

His boldest take yet on the war's repercussions in his native Galicia... a work of unusual beauty

Financial Times

This is an exceptional book by an exceptional writer... a unique literary enterprise

Independent

His most substantial work to date

London Review of Books

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 Times

Rivas weaves a tapestry of characters into an event that is largely overlooked in history

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