Le Tourmente

Rounding off a literary weekend: this afternoon we were in Lagrasse yet again to hear first-time novelist Kiko Hernandez talk about ¡ Sauve qui peut Madrid !, a series of autobiographical snippets. He grew up in Madrid, left aged 25 a few years after Franco's death, and has lived in Paris ever since. So he had an interestingly different perspective from the other two authors we heard this weekend, Alfons Cervera and Victor del Arbol, both of whom grew up under Franco and live in Spain.  He read a few extracts from his book (in French) and we liked them so much that at the end of the talk S dashed into the bookshop and bought his book -- as did probably quite a few other people. Which of course is the idea of a literary festival -- I've also downloaded a  Cervera book to my Kindle, and S bought Julio Llamazares' Luna de Lobos. Should keep us in reading matter for a while.

This evening I went to my new book group for the second time, and we talked about Iris Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea. I'm really enjoying the group -- J did a good presentation about the book and we had an interesting discussion. I got there slightly late because on the way I couldn't resist stopping in Roubia to take a photo of Le Tourmente, last seen here, starring Le Dandy Manchot.

PS can a French person explain to me why it's called Le Tourmente and not La Tourmente, despite being une péniche? And une tourmente for that matter ...