Author: Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón
- Fiction
- Anagrama
- ISBN: 9788433997661
- Release Date: 02-28-2014
-Reviewed by: Madeline Peña
Cuando el frío llegue al corazón is a realist novel written with powerful simplicity. Brief and entertaining, tells the coming-of-age story of thirteen-year-old Ludi, a sagacious and daring adolescent in the cusp of emotional and sexual awakening who lives in a rural town of northern Spain in the 1950s.
The story is narrated from the first-person perspective of Ludi, revealing the sometimes drifting and ambivalent mind of an adolescent who is in the midst of family drama and social distress, but who at the same time is enjoying learning about friendship, first love, sex, and life in general. Ludi’s world is surrounded by good friends—young and old—and is highlighted by books and stories of ancient gods.
Ludi lives in a world that revolves around the bullring, livestock, commerce, smoking, drinking, and siestas; a town filled with unique characters—especially during the summer when the story takes place: a father imprisoned for political reasons, an uncle who is also tutor, a beautiful and fragile woman at the center of a peculiar “love square,” a young best friend, a boxer turned friar, and idiosyncratic townspeople.
Cuando el frío llegue al corazón has a poetic title drawn from Plato's Phaedo, which depicts the death of Socrates—“when the cold reached his heart, he would be gone.” This and other quotes from Phaedo are interspersed throughout the story, since Ludi is learning Greek by translating Plato’s dialogue.
Cuando el frío llegue al corazón is the third and most personal novel yet written by screenwriter and film director Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, drawn from memories of his young years growing up in Cantabria, Spain. His previous books, La vida antes de marzo (2009) and Gloria mía (2012), both published by Anagrama, have not been translated into English.
Cuando el frío llegue al corazón is entertaining, humorous, touching, and easy to read. The original and refreshing story kept me engaged thanks to wonderfully crafted characters, excellent prose, and a touch of intrigue and irony.
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