Press release
The literary saga that has captivated 80,000 readers.
The literary work of the journalist and writer Rafel Nadal places him as one of the fundamental authors of the memorial literature of the 21st century in our country. Through his memory and family memories he has managed to build a monumental saga composed
for When We Were Happy and Days of Champagne and which now culminates with When Words Are Erased where he offers us an intimate and delicate look, with which he pays tribute to parents and grandparents.
When words are erased and memories fade, that which is not named ceases to exist. So the author only has to write these pages, with the hope that every time someone reads them they will rescue the stories described in them and revive, one by one, their protagonists. A story that does not hide nostalgia for an era that is ending, but that fills with humor and tenderness a time that has just begun.
A story of great emotional intensity that will remain indelible in the readers’ memories.
An author who belongs to the best literary tradition of authors like Luis Landero and who speaks about his family with the self-confidence and beauty of
Manuel Vilas.
«My mother looked out the window, but I don’t know what she saw. She was in the
dining room of the family house in the Plaza de Santa Llúcia as always,
sitting in a wingback chair, hands folded in her lap,
head tilted to the right, lips closed and eyes
glassy looking beyond the terrace and the bell tower
of Sant Pere. He had no major health complications and seemed
Be in a good form; in the good physical shape that can be
ninety-eight years old and spending all day between the couch and the
Wheelchair. It could seem that everything was as before, as
always, but nothing was the same. The words had been erased. All.
The entire dictionary.”
The protagonists
Montserrat Farreras
She was a daring and independent young woman; one of the few girls in post-war Spain who went to university, where she graduated in History. She married Manel Nadal and they formed a family of the provincial petty bourgeoisie in the midst of Franco’s era. They had twelve children, whom they raised with exemplary and intelligent efficiency, deeply Catholic, she governs her family with rigor and tenderness at the same time.
«I’m not afraid of death, it’s like moving house, because
life is forever. On the road to the afterlife, I am more
closer to the end than to the beginning: if I die first, if I am the
What is missing, love your father; If he is missing first, love me
a lot to me.”
Manuel Nadal
Supporter of the family, seventy years with Montserrat, with deep Christian values, hardworking, responsible and effective father and with a particular sense of humor. Owner of a lumber warehouse, he has educated his children in effort and work and has given them an overflowing passion for the nature that surrounds them.
«Decency, dignity and effort were virtues that they believed
essential to educate ourselves as people in that environment
primary and animal.”
Rafael Nadal
Sixth son of Montserrat and Manel, husband, father and affectionate grandfather, he recovers in these pages the happy childhood and youth lived in
family during the 50s and 60s of the last century in a masterful example of memorial literature. Between yesterday and today, the mother’s fragility will also lead him to wonder about his role as a son, as a father and as a grandfather and, like his parents, he will seek to leave a mark on his grandchildren.
«What if he realized everything? What if she knew we weren’t going that far anymore?
regularly, that the visits were spaced out and shorter?
What if she realized that we had given her up for lost, that only
We were going to keep him company because it was our turn, because not
We wanted to feel that we were ungrateful to her, that she had done it to us.
given everything, who had always done everything for us?
Source: https://algunoslibrosbuenos.com/cuando-se-borran-las-palabras
