Galego | English

Fiction

L'affiche rouge

By Mario Regueira

About this book

L’ affiche rouge narrates the coming of age of several young people born during the transition from a dictatorship to democracy. The characters find themselves in a world in which in which fighting for hope is only the beginning of all political or personal struggle and and in their lack of collective identity, they are confronted with the unresolved problems of previous generations. L’ affiche rouge is a portrait of a generation that strives for a reality that is not what was promised to them but a world in which their own personal identity is subjected to constant negotiations and attack in a globalised and hierarchical context. The characters take different stands, from complete inhibition to complete rebellion and explosive celebration of diversion. This novel follows the tradition of the Bildungsroman in which the characters are immersed in a training process in which failure and lack of references is a constant element.

Book fragment

Smoke had slowly faded away. Most of the guests were now lying on the luxurious sofas in the living room with that sort of sleepiness that invades those who have been smoking for a long time. Only a couple of them were still rolling, undeterred. Fran laughed at them with his reddish eyes while he mumbled some reproachful words in his poor French. Véronique, his girlfriend, was pressing herself against him in a slow and clumsy way. This was the end of the party, outside the night was dying.

Get up, stand up, stand up for you right. Get up,
stand up, don´t give up the fight…

The stereo had spitted reggae the whole night through.

Miguel was unaware of most of the songs that had been played, French bands, more or less underground. Only a while ago somebody had put in an old Bob’s record, their real God. Miguel mustered songs he knew, the popular ones any one could muster, while he looked at all the others. They were weird, he thought, not only weird but weirdly contradictory. He smiled without being aware of his smile. Both continued rolling and showing beautiful blonde dreadlocks. They could not stop laughing and speaking in little bursts. Miguel understood far more than what he thought.