A book a day: Look at Agur Meabe: The Gate of the Sea

Original language: Basque

Original title: The door of the sea

Translation: Miren Farewell Meabe

Year of publication: 2001

Valuation: Recommended for your audience

Well, to close the year we have youth literature, a genre or subgenre that I’m not sure I feel qualified to value correctly. As in any other case, I understand that it has its own codes, which must be considered depending on the audience they are aimed at. In the case of this book, and using a purely domestic criterion, I think that this segment could be set between twelve and fourteen years old. What should be offered to a kid of that age? In my opinion, adventure, certain doses of mystery and some fear, a language that goes a little beyond the simple, values ​​that must be underlined, an atmosphere that invites you to immerse yourself in the story, things like that. In short, entertainment yes, but also a demand to know more, think and move forward. But of course, he knows all this much better than I. Look at Agur Meabe, who has a lot of publications of this type and numerous awards for that.

On this occasion he takes us to a romantic setting, in the mid-19th century on an Atlantic island perhaps near the coast of Brittany. A girl, orphaned by her mother, is sent to live with her grandmother, and will immediately come into contact with various local characters, so she will learn old stories of family sagas, and discover mansions with secret passages, dusty diaries, confusing stories of disappearances and forbidden loves.

As I suppose the genre demands, the girl transcends her age and becomes the protagonist of an adventure, she enjoys new emotions and is not intimidated by mysteries, she overcomes dangers and helps those around her who need it. A good combination to attract the young reader and keep their attention at those ages when, I suppose, they feel the need to experiment, enter the adult world and become aware that they can intervene in it as an important actor.

I like the setting, dim but well built, dark enough and with the feeling of remoteness and vulnerability that the island transmits as a confinement in which the only option is to integrate into that world and use kindness, courage and cunning to survive. to the dangers and ensure that the truth triumphs. There are also things that convince me less, such as those sparks, I understand that are not always justified, of supernatural elements that I imagine seek more than anything to seduce the reader, or a list of characters that seems somewhat excessive to me, and that in my opinion disperse the focus without need.

But I recognize that perhaps these small objections are made from the point of view of an adult reader, and handling the keys of a youth story they should be valued differently. As a whole, and with all the cautions that I have been indicating, the book seems quite suitable for those ages, I understand that it has just the right amount of well-calibrated prose and will surely please the audience to which it is directed. Young readers will wonder things, they will surely enjoy most of the passages, and they will have to stop to think about some details. And that’s always good.