Light strikes by Ledicia Costas

After the success of Infamia, the Galician writer shows her great narrative talent with a tender and wild novel.

A life shared by three generations of a family in rural Galicia. Three voices, that of the grandmother, the mother and the child, narrating and living this story full of humor and tenderness. Until the blows of drug trafficking so present in Galicia in the 90s burst wildly into their lives.

Ledicia Costas, National Prize for Children’s and Young People’s Literature, once again shows her great creative talent after the great success of Infamia, a book that has been at the top of the sales lists in Galicia for more than two years. With a consolidated career in children’s and youth literature, author of several bestsellers, Ledicia returns once again to the adult universe with Golpes de Luz, a novel where childhood monsters come to life through family secrets. Her ability to capture childish sensitivity bursts strongly into this book through the voice of Sebas, a ten-year-old boy who is one of the great protagonists of this story.

“Your grandmother is Thor,” David said. Hammer, lightning and thunder. He is very clear.

“You mean Thora,” I wanted to correct him.

—Nothing from Thora. “Thor,” he insisted, standing firm. The one who carries the hammer is Thor. Mjölnir decides who is worthy of wielding it. And he can be a man, a frog, an alien or your grandmother »

THE NOVEL THROUGH ITS PROTAGONISTS

In Golpes de luz, the focus is on characters who are not usually protagonists: a caring woman, a child, and an elderly woman. This novel makes visible problems in our society that are very frequent and, however, have little literary presence: caring for the elderly, raising children and how that weight falls on women, who are forced to give up other aspects. of their lives to be able to carry out that work.

Julia
Age: 40 years
Profession: journalist
Obsession: the disappearance of his father

«I know that my mother is hiding information from me. I’ve always known it. The difference is that now I am ready to extract the truth from him.

Julia is working on a report about the uptick in heroin trafficking. She has just separated from her husband and she decides to leave Madrid and return with her son Sebas to Galicia, where Luz, her mother, lives. She needs distance to manage the breakup. But her return to her hometown means returning to a house full of secrets: the shadow of the disappearance of her father, who left for Argentina without a trace more than thirty years ago, surrounds everything. Julia is determined to discover the truth, but Luz doesn’t make it easy for her. Her complicated nature and her refusal to talk about the past drive her daughter to despair. And the lies she tells non-stop. It is impossible to differentiate if Luz has dementia or if everything is a strategy to continue hiding what happened with her husband. But, above all, she is her mother, and she cares for her and protects her like a lioness does her cub.

Julia is overwhelmed: her recent separation, taking care of her mother, raising her son alone, the loaded gun she finds in a drawer and the clues she discovers as she progresses in her report cause her life to become increasingly complicated. . Everything changes when she finds a photograph of Lucifer, a well-known drug trafficker: she begins to understand that her father’s past and life are linked to that man.

Luz
Age: 80 years
Occupation: housewife
Obsession: his hammer

«I’ve been hearing shit all my life. And what do you want me to tell you, at almost eighty years old I’m sick to death. “I’m anxiously awaiting the moment when my daughter leaves me behind and leaves me to the mountains once and for all.”

Luz is a woman who barely has any education. She is practically illiterate and quite foul-mouthed. She considers that at eighty years old she is no longer able to put up with certain things. And much less to tolerate anyone telling her what she has to do. What Luz wants is to live in peace taking care of her garden, playing ludo with her friends and drinking Samson wine until she sees double. But her daughter Julia doesn’t allow it: she controls the money she spends, what she eats, the clothes she wears, the hours she sleeps, the cigarettes she smokes… And, on top of that, she is obsessed with knowing details about the disappearance of his father. She went to Argentina, that’s all she needs to know. The rest of her doesn’t matter to anyone.
But Luz knows more than she seems. She hides several secrets. Like the fact that her husband had drug dealer friends. But all that will go with her to her grave. Or not?

Luz is so excessive that sometimes her behavior has overtones of melodrama. He is a very funny character, who gives rise to crazy situations. She never leaves his mother’s side, she sleeps with him under the pillow, sometimes she cradles him, as if she were his son. When he gets angry, he hits tremendous hammer blows.
The only person Luz understands is Sebas, even though there are seventy years of difference between the two. Her grandson is smart and he is authentic. Without it, life would be a black hole.

Sebas
Age: 10 years
Occupation: fifth grade student
Obsession: proving that his grandmother is Thor

«I love being a child. I want to stay here
forever.”

Sebas is a genius with words. He is a witty and sensitive child and has made two great friends at his new school: Guerrero and Noa. Guerrero is significantly overweight and has been put on a diet. He knows a lot about comics and Norse gods. Noah is very intelligent. Everyone assumes that his brain is going to end up in the hands of science. The three are convinced that Grandma Luz is the god Thor. Sebas has seen her at night in the garden, holding her hammer in the middle of a thunderstorm, under a lot of lightning. Sebas adores her, even though he tells lies about her all the time and sometimes gets him into trouble, like when she convinced him that she had to go to the neighbor’s house to steal a pack of cigarettes.

Sometimes Sebas gets sad because things are happening in his life that he doesn’t like. His parents have separated and he can’t stand divorces. He also doesn’t like that his father lives in Madrid, he is too far away. And at school there is a boy who won’t stop picking on him. He is also afraid because he believes that the Butcher of Gods wants to kill his grandmother with the Black Necrosword. But, despite everything, he is happy. He has the best friends in the world and is the grandson of a goddess.

Sebas, along with Luz, is a character who stars in several scenes full of humor. His innocence is the counterpoint to the character of his grandmother. Together they form a couple that will bring many smiles.