'El lápiz del carpintero' (Alfaguara, 1998), is a novel by Manuel Rivas. He originally wrote it in Galician but it was quickly translated into Spanish with great success.

It is a symbolic novel of love and war that has been recognized repeatedly with the Spanish Critics Award, the Galician Language Writers Association Award, and the Archbishop Juan de San Clemente Award.

Later he also won the Amnesty International Belgian Selection Award. In 2003 it was adapted to film by Antón Reixa.

It tells the story of Daniel da Barca, a republican doctor imprisoned in the Santiago de Compostela prison during the Spanish civil war. It is not a mere narrative about the civil war, it is also a love story and an ideological and hopeless journey.

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