A través de la lluvia: Salvador Espinosa’s Stories of Loss, Luck and Second Chances in Rainy Ferrol
A través de la lluvia ("Through the Rain") gathers several stories set in Ferrol, a Galician city known for its abundant rain. Written by the author of El extraño viaje, they are small, human stories about illness, luck, ambition and the choices that change a life.
Author: Salvador Espinosa González-Llanos
Title: A través de la lluvia (2001)
Format: Spanish paperback (Embora), 152 pages
Scope: Collection of stories set in Ferrol, Galicia
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/8495460122 (ASIN 8495460122)
Hospitals and Miracles
Lola lives a rather sad life after losing her daughter to cancer, and after so much time spent between treatments and hospitals. She makes her friend promise never to take her to hospital, however ill she becomes. In a moment of weakness her friend calls the doctor, and Lola is cared for at home until the very end.
In a city hospital, Mari and Pepe have been waiting for news of Carlos since his accident. He has been in a vegetative state for months with no sign of improvement. When it is finally decided to switch off the machines keeping him alive, something very unusual happens. A little boy of about five tugs at Mari’s skirt and offers her a few coins to buy him a bag of crisps at the cafeteria. Somewhat confused, she does so, and later hears the child say: ’Carlos is waiting for you.’ Pepe does not remember seeing the boy, but goes up with her to Carlos’s room, where they find that he has woken from his coma, defying the predictions of every doctor who had treated him.
Ambition and Its Price
A minister devoted exclusively to his work is about to separate from his wife; they have a five-year-old son. But something unexpected makes him think again: after a rough emergency landing, he decides to resign and devote himself to enjoying family life.
In a bank branch in Ferrol, cost-cutting redundancies are proposed. Ángel, the branch’s youngest high-flyer, makes the proposal himself, sure it will earn him a promotion. Years later it turns out that he was dismissed by the very person who put his idea into practice, and who was promoted and transferred to Madrid. As a final irony, the new branch manager also ended up with the dismissed man’s girlfriend.
Don Vicente, Genaro’s first boss, worked for years as the chief writer of a magazine, until, after years of success, he died of a heart attack. Genaro, devastated, misses how well the magazine worked when his boss was alive. Married to Nuria, he keeps writing, but the last straw is his wife’s sudden death in a car accident. He sinks into a deep depression and can no longer write as he did in his youth.
Duty and an Old Cemetery
A daughter decides to leave home to help in a convent caring for the sick whom nobody looks after. Her father gives her all his support, but fate puts her in a difficult position when he falls ill: she must choose between caring for him and staying where she helps those who need it most. Her mother believes from the start that it was the wrong decision and that she has abandoned her family; the daughter thinks her mother is being selfish.
Also in Ferrol, two friends, intrigued by an old story told by an elderly gravedigger, unravel the mystery surrounding the old cemetery. The López de Vergara and Serantes families share a scandalous past. And it is there that Alberto falls in love with Sofía, a girl with a stammer, and his wedding to María is postponed. I have not found an English edition, so I link the Spanish one.
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