Cirrus@Austlit

'Set in a remote village in the northwest coast of Spain, Young Love is a deeply moving collection of six interconnected stories that call up the ghosts of the past half-century for the three survivors of a lively, colourful world that had no notion of how soon it was to disappear. Closely observant, and always aware of the plural realities that define individual lives, Félix Calvino has once again created a world that readers can immediately enter and make their own.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The short stories in So Much Smoke owe much to Félix Calvino’s own experiences as a migrant who moved from the Galicia region of Spain to Australia, a country and culture radically different from the peasant village he left behind. The majority of the stories chronicle the hardships and small joys of village life, while the Australian stories tell of the migrant experience in which all that is known is forfeited in the search for material security.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Alfonso is a short novel set in Sydney between 1962 and 1971. The protagonist is a man from the northwest of Spain who migrates to Australia to escape poverty. When he arrives in Australia he confronts language problems, homesickness and isolation. He works as a carpenter and eventually buys an old house in Surry Hills, unaware of the cost and commitment associated with old houses and feuding neighbours. When the house is finished he meets a woman and they fall in love, but the woman leaves for England. The story then traces his search for love and in the process he finds a way to belong in his new country. More than a love story, this is a novella about the migrant experience in which all that is known is forfeited in the search for material security.'

Source: Author's blog (http://ahatfulofcherries.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/alfonso.html). (Sighted: 31/1/2014)