We celebrate the centenary of one of the most distinctive and brilliant voices of the Spanish narrative of the 20th. century.
Neither her career nor her life conformed to the role of Spanish women of the time. A born storyteller, her books are marked by ruthless realism and fantasy.
In a post-war Barcelona an adolescent girl armed with courage decided to walk to the Destino publishing house to deliver her novel in person in a hand-written notebook with a black rubber cover. She went there several days, overcoming her shyness, before securing a meeting with the label director, who patiently, and one can just imagine with considerable father-like demeanor, informed her that the manuscript had to be typed before handing it in. She did so and brought it back. The director liked the story and drew up a contract which her father had to sign since she was still a minor.
Matute started publishing her stories in the publishing house’s magazine before the novel from the rubber notebook, ‘Pequeño Teatro,’ reached bookstores a few years later. In fact, it was the second one they published, and with it she won the Planeta Prize. Neither her career nor her life conformed to the role of Spanish women of the time. A born storyteller, her books are marked by ruthless realism and fantasy.
In a post-war Barcelona an adolescent girl armed with courage decided to walk to the Destino publishing house to deliver her novel in person in a hand-written notebook with a black rubber cover. She went there several days, overcoming her shyness, before securing a meeting with the label director, who patiently, and one can just imagine with considerable father-like demeanor, informed her that the manuscript had to be typed before handing it in. She did so and brought it back. The director liked the story and drew up a contract which her father had to sign since she was still a minor.
Matute started publishing her stories in the publishing house’s magazine before the novel from the rubber notebook, ‘Pequeño Teatro,’ reached bookstores a few years later. In fact, it was the second one they published, and with it she won the Planeta Prize.
