The Proper Painting

A painter, Xabier Nóvoa, who can only paint if he has a live model in front of him. A maid, Carmiña, who is queen of the washing place. A pickpocket, Inés, who knows how to catch eels. A stepfather, Pig, who merges with the pigs he pins to the ground. A father, Henrique, who works on a North Sea oil rig. Two boys, Forxán and Tilve, who steal from the cab of a fruit lorry. A blind girl, Adela, who seeks revenge with the help of Mariña. A bookseller, Antía, who prepares reading requests for the local inmates. There are hidden connections - Sailor, who visits Carmiña’s mistress, is the headmaster of Forxán and Tilve’s school; Tilve uses the ruins of the mill where Mariña takes refuge as a landmark; Adela is one of the children entertained by Inés when she hitches a ride; the inmate in the last story is Inés’s grandson and sports a tattoo done by the painter. The eight stories in The Proper Painting, Fabio Rivas’s inaugural volume, published when the author was twenty-six, met with universal acclaim when the Galician edition came out in 2023; the depth of language, myriad narrative voices and unexpected plot-lines place him firmly in the line of his namesake, Manuel Rivas, and the latter’s book Vermeer’s Milkmaid & Other Stories, which won the Spanish National Book Award in 1996. Both books are translated into English by Jonathan Dunne.