Galician Novel 'the Carpenter's Pencil' Sells 100,000 Copies

Manuel Rivas’s novel O lapis do carpinteiro (The Carpenter’s Pencil), published in 1998, has sold 100,000 copies in the Galician language, defying expectations for a book written in a regional language and not in Spanish. The book tells a story of love and survival amid the repression following the Spanish Civil War, focusing on a republican doctor and his partner who survive imprisonment. Rivas drew inspiration from interviews with republicans exiled in Cuba and from a carpenter’s pencil inherited from his grandfather.

The novel’s success predates the recent trend of literary works focusing on Spain’s recovery of democratic memory. It gained praise from prominent authors including Günter Grass and Eduardo Galeano, who recognized its powerful depiction of trauma and silence. Rivas describes the book as exploring not only the events of the war but also the enduring impact of silence and the resilience of the human spirit.

The novel has been translated into 40 languages and adapted into a film directed by Antón Reixa. Rivas continues to write, with his 2006 novel Os libros arden mal representing a later exploration of the same historical period.