Lime olive trees

BOOK REVIEW

LIME OLIVE TREES

Author: Fran Toro From the reader report by: Antônio Roberto Esteves

Olivos de cal is the award-winning debut novel by Fran Toro Gutiérrez, a historian who has decided to dedicate himself to writing. Woven on the threshold of oral accounts from the region of his ancestors, the story seeks to portray the harsh life of a family in the first half of the 20th century in the olive groves of Sierra Sur, on the edge of Jaén province.

At the heart of the accounts is the story of a strong woman and her troubled relations with the land lords. The protagonist of the novel, rather than the local peasants who struggle to survive by cultivating their olive groves, grazing their animals, trying to make a living from those stony fields, suffering the oppression of the landowners and their taskmasters, is actually the land itself, dry and hostile, as it often does in this type of novel.

Despite the struggle between the gangs involved in the Civil War, given the vicissitudes of the battles in the region, Olivos de cal cannot be considered a novel of the War. In it the conflict that figures in part of the narrative arises as a consequence of century-old and unsolved agrarian and social problems of the region. These problems were latent during the Republic times, in the war period and afterwards, when the Franco dictatorship violently suffocated the guerrilla nucleus active in the area.

Despite the persistent dialogue with harsh reality and historical facts, it is a fully fictional narrative. The action, however, is located in a geographic site that can be located, and is identified with its own names.

In this way, the novel, alternating real and fictional threads, produces an intricate portrait that hides, behind the breathtaking landscapes of Jaén’s olive groves, harsh and suffering scenes from the history of a little-remembered part of this deep Andalusia that is almost always reproduced in a stereotypical and folkloric way.

PUBLISHED IN NEW SPANISH BOOKS BR | FR

SUSANA ALFONSO AGENCIA LITERARIA

Title LIME OLIVE TREES OLIVOS DE CAL

Author Fran Toro Genre Literature Pages 299

ISBN 978-84-18208-09-6 Year of publication 2020 Number of editions 2 Language Spanish Spanish retail price 18.00 €

Author’s biography: Fran Toro (Badalona, 1977) is a history teacher and writer and these two activities are as naturally combined as different coloured pieces of plasticine in the hand of a child. He has written numerous articles, reports and literary texts for publications such as Diario Jaén, Crónica Global, the Fábula literary magazine, Ábaco magazine, El Toro Celeste and Panenka magazine. He has also chanced his hand at comics, always in tandem with the illustrator Juaco Vizuete, with whom he has written the picture book (Geografía e) Historieta. He has had various successes with microfiction, including the Jury prize at the first Signo Editores Microfiction Competition (2017) with his tweet-story Hendaya de Criptana. Olivos de Cal, his first novel, has been awarded the Premio Nacional de Novela Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia (2019). In 2016 the same work was a finalist in the XX City of Badajoz International Prize. www.frantoro.net

Synopsis: Olivos de cal is a rural novel worthy of Delibes at his most sober. The skilfully drawn characters hide their feelings to such an extent that their silence is itself another character. Two stories in one place, the landscape of Jaén, unfurl through the years leading up to the harsh decade of the 1930s. The author’s mastery of vocabulary envelops you from the first page, like the hazy light of the lamp in the farmhouse. Stroll through the olive grove and smell the fennel and rosemary, feel your own breath in front of the firing squad or as the bombs fall, let yourself be rocked under the branches of the flowering olive tree. Fran Toro’s novel sounds like [the flamenco singers] Lole and Manuel, smells like wet earth and tastes like oil. “This novel is like a woman you can feel breathing as she climbs the slope of life among centuries-old olive trees.” by Susana Fortes Publisher who has published: Olé Libros

Publisher: Susana Alfonso Agencia Literaria Literary Agency dedicated to the representation of writers, and to their guidance and development. Publishing rights available from: Susana Alfonso Agencia Literaria - CIF A29168350 Partida Pinarmar. Residencial Les Basetes I y II,Calpe, Alicante www.susanaalfonso.com Contact: Susana Alfonso [susalfonso@gmail.com] [susana@susasnaalfonso.es] Phone: (+34) 652 944 145 Prizes and reviews: National Novel Prize from the Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia (2019). In 2016 the same work was a finalist in the XX City of Badajoz International Prize. series. Comments: “Olivos de Cal is a necessary novel, as necessary as it is useful to understand the nature and moral strength of the Andalusians” Antonio Gómez Rufo.