“If you intend to be universal, speak about your village”, Leon Tolstoi wrote, and Xulio Gayoso goes back to these words and introduces a picture book that mixes magic and nostalgia, the future and hope. This story is some kind of rural chronicle, halfway between reality and fiction, addressing issues such as the depopulation of rural areas and emigration to cities.

But it also introduces the opposite phenomenon, immigration of new settlers to otherwise abandoned villages, of new neighbours coming from far away countries that make Vilacendoi a nice example of social, cultural and racial integration.

This book helps us discover the lifestyle of rural areas, traditions such as folk music bands, the beauty of the landscape, the diversity of the wild flora and domestic fauna.