Cartas de inverno (‘Winter Letters’)



portada Cartas de inverno (‘Winter Letters’)
Publishing Details
Publisher: Edicións Xerais
First Edition: 1995
ISBN: 978-84-9782-543-6
Pages: 123
Collection: Fóra de xogo

Downloads
First chapter of the book

Synopsis

The writer Xabier Louzao returns to Galicia after a long stay in Quebec, and he finds the letters which his friend Adrian, a famous painter, has been sending him during his time abroad. In the letters Adrian talks enthusiastically about the new house he is living in – an old colonial manor – but slowly the tone of the letters becomes progressively more worried, leading to an evident horror in the face of the strange events which take place in the mansion. Xabier decides to help his friend and travels to the location of the house.
The epistolary genre is combined with the narration and the characters progressively alternate their roles. A well structured horror novel, narrated with a good rhythm and in which the successful progression of the story is outstanding, gaining intensity and mystery page by page.

A booktrailer can be seen here.

In 2012, illustrator and creator Antonio Seijas published a comic book version of Winter Letters (Xerais, 2012), which received the Isaac Díaz Pardo award for best book of the year.

Translations
References
Awards
portada Cartas de inverno
Portuguese
ISBN: 972-8305-52-4
Pages: 90
Publisher: Contemporânea

Translation: Francisco Alba Linhares
Cartas de inverno

Querido Xabier:
Se chegares até aqui é por que já sabes a verdade. Mas talvez ainda não tenhas caído nas suas armadilhas, talvez ainda estejas a tempo de te salvares. Abandona tudo, Xabier, e vai-te embora, vai para muito longe, para um lugar onde não te possam apanhar!
Não me procures mais, porque eu já estou perdido.
Se me visses agora, fugirias de mim. Para o perceber, terias que ter visto o que eu vi, terias que saber o que há aqui em baixo. Se encontrasse palavras para te dizer o que aqui existe, para te dizer aquilo em que me tornei, poderias enlouquecer para sempre. Vai, tu que ainda estás a tempo! Vai-te e abandona o que resta de mim!

portada Cartas de invierno
Spanish
ISBN: 978-84-1318-826-3
Pages: 91
Publisher: SM

Translation: Rafael Chacón
Cartas de invierno

El pintor Adrián Novoa, incitado por su amigo Xavier, compra una casa en una aldea de Galicia. Es la casa de sus sueños. En ella quiere encontrar la paz necesaria para explorar nuevos caminos en su pintura. Pero la casa esconde un hondo misterio que atrapa a Novoa como un imán.

Fourteenth Edition: 2020

portada Cartes d`hivern
Catalan
ISBN: 978-84-7660-308-6
Pages: 106
Publisher: Bromera

Translation: Josep Franco Martínez
Cartes d`hivern

«Comence a escriure aquestes línies amb la certesa que em queden poques hores de vida.» Amb aquestes paraules, l’ escriptor Xavier Louzao inicia la narració d’uns fets esfereïdors. Després d’una llarga estada al Canadà, Xavier troba les cartes que li havia escrit durant aquesta absència el seu amic Adrià. Alarmat pel que hi relata, decideix auxiliar-lo, sense saber que en la vella casa colonial s’haura d’ enfrontar a uns misteris que ni tan soIs podem imaginar…

portada Neguko gutunak
Basque
ISBN: 84-7917-726-8
Pages: 120
Publisher: Elkar

Translation: Jerardo Elortza
Neguko gutunak

Etxe handi, dotore, naturaren erdian galdutako bat, eta bere inguruan misterio apur bat ere baduena. Toki hobezina dirudi Adrian bezalako pintore ospetsu batentzat, Galiziara itzultzen denean. Pixkanaka, ordea, misterio horiek bildu egingo dute, zurrunbilo batean bezala. Fenomeno gero eta anormalagoak gertatuko zaizkio eta, intelektualki hori ezinezkoa dela konbentzituta badago ere, lilura estrainio batek erakartzen du labirintoaren erdira, bere kontzientziaz jabeturik bezala. Bere esperientziak gutunen bidez kontatzen dizkio Xabier lagunari, eta hau ere espiral horretan sorgindurik geratuko da, irakurlea izu-istorio , bortitz honetan harrapaturik gera daitekeen modu berean.

portada Tasmant en ti
Breton
ISBN: 979-10-90456-07-5
Pages: 108
Publisher: Sav-Heol

Translation: Mark Kerrain
Tasmant en ti

Xabier Louzao zo ur skrivagner distro da Santiago de Compostela goude bet mizioù e Kebek. Kuit e oa aet hep kemenn d’e vignon livour Adrián Novoa, ha pa zistro e kav lizhiri digantañ, kaset entre Here 1993 hag Ebrel 1994.

Enne e skriv al livour en deus prenet ur pezh ti e parrez Doroña, e kumun Vilarmaior, ha tasmantoù ennañ. Kontañ a ra penaos en deus kavet an ti, ha petra zo c’hoarvezet goude e brenadenn hag abaoe m’emañ o chom en ti. Da gentañ e wel e c’hoarvez traoù souezhus met krediñ a ra n’int nemet farsadennoù : pellgomzadennoù digomprenus, kemennoù er belleilerez. Kavout a ra ul levr kozh hag ennañ engravadurioù. Unan anezho a sach e evezh : ur plac’h yaouank, troet he c’hein, a zo o sellout dre arprenestr. Hogen fiñval a ra er skeudenn pa ne vezer ket o sellout. Er skrid e kaver elfennoù eus ar romantoù-spont, e doare Edgar Allan Poe pe H.P. Lovecraft, a zo meneget e anv. Elfennoù zo ivez eus sevenadur Galiza : tisavouriezh roman,Santa Compaña, petroglifoù.

portada Winter Letters
English
ISBN: 978-954-384-041-0
Pages: 92
Publisher: Small Stations Press

Translation: Jonathan Dunne
Winter Letters

‘The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown’, writes H.P. Lovecraft at the start of his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature. In real life, the author Agustín Fernández Paz, Galicia’s answer to H.P. Lovecraft, is reading the newspaper and comes across a classified ad for a haunted house. He imagines what would happen if someone answered that at. Then what would happen if they went to see the house and liked it. Then what would happen if they had enough money and decided to buy it. And finally what would happen if they went to live there and discovered that the house was really haunted. This is the plot of Winter Letters, one of the best-selling Galician novels of all time. The house will bring to mind, for older readers, the Bates’ home in Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho. Inside the house is a book of prints that may remind younger readers of Tom Riddle’s diary in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. However this may be, the reader is sure to be drawn in by the force and power of the narrative, which is as smooth and sinuous as the sirens’ song heard by Ulysses from the sanctuary of the mast of his ship.

  • Finalist for the Protagonista Jove Prize from the Catalan Council for Children’s and Young Adult Literature (ClijCAT)
  • Rañolas Prize, 1995
  • Selected by the magazine CLIJ. Cuadernos de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil as one of Spain’s best one hundred children’s and young adult books of the 20th century




José António Gomes. Expresso (27-2-1999)

Cartas de inverno is a masterfully constructed fantastical narration which ties us to the text and makes us progress feverishly with our reading until we reach the final scenes.