On the occasion of the book Hasta que empieza a brillar. Centre Cultural La Nau
Colloquium with
André Neuman
Colloquium on the occasion of the publication of the book
Hasta que empieza a brillar. María Moliner y la aventura de escribir un diccionario (Until it starts to shine. María Moliner and the adventure of writing a dictionary)
Presents
Cristina García Pascual. Head of the UV Literature Society
SYNOPSIS
We usually identify María Moliner with her dictionary, "the most complete, useful and fun of the Spanish language", according to García Márquez. But, why did she write it at 50 years old, during Franco dictatorship? How could she complete, practically alone, the most important author dictionary of all times?
Hasta que empieza a brillar tells the intimate story of María Moliner, based on an appealing literary promise: to do a full-length narration of the main character through her connection to language.
At the same time, it gives us a suggestive hypothesis: what if her dictionary was also part of a sort of hidden autobiography?
This is the novelized life of a fascinating figure, portrayed from a difficult childhood to an unexpected end, including her extraordinary role as a librarian during the República or her polemic candidacy for the Royal Spanish Academy. Between research and imagination, combining both family drama and collective tragedy, takes place the story of a secret resistance.
An act of justice to the legacy of a woman who lived against normality and explored the words until they started to shine.
"María Moliner achieved what so few were able to achieve before: she wrote alone, in her house, with her own hands, the most complete, helpful and fun dictionary of the Spanish language".
Gabriel García Márquez
"Andrés Neuman reveals to us the literature that lives in the dictionary and in the life of the woman who created it, bringing us closer to a fabulous character and doing justice to a rebel in the dark times, as subtle as radical".
Jazmina Barrera
BIOGRAPHY
Andrés Neuman (1977) was born in Buenos Aires and spent his childhood there. Son of Argentine exiled musicians, he ended up in Granada, where he studied Philology, worked as University Professor and lives with his family. At 22 years old he became a finalist for the Premio Herralde with his acclaimed first novel, Bariloche. This novel was followed by La vida en las ventanas, Una vez Argentina, El viajero del siglo (Prize Alfaguara and Premio de la Crítica, a Critics Award), Hablar solos, Fractura y Hasta que empieza a brillar.
He has also published storybooks such as Alumbramiento and Hacerse el muerto; poetry books such as Mística abajo, Vivir de oído and Isla con madre; a travel journal around Latin America Cómo viajar sin ver; an eulogy to non-canonical bodies Anatomía sensible; the dyptych about his son formed by Umbilical and Pequeño hablante; and the satirical dictionary Barbarismos.
He won the prizes Federico García Lorca, Antonio Carvajal and Hiperión of Poetry, the Firecracker Award for Fiction, given by the community of journals, independent publishers and bookstores from USA, and the Special Mention from the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize jury.
He also was part of the list Bogotá-39 and was selected by the British magazine Granta among the best narrators in Spanish of his generation. His books have been translated into 25 languages.
Free entry, limited capacity
