by Ivan Repila
The previous days were very strange for him; the family home surrounded by an expectant crowd, and him, inside, alone, avoiding their gaze. And ultimately leaving, because that place could no longer be his and because he knew that his spirit was no longer close to what it had been before.
‘I’m back,’ he says.
He unravels the ropes and secures the ends to the stakes nailed into the ground. He takes the opposite end of one of them and ties it around his body, winding three circles around his waist and two more around his groin. An endless human tide observes the ceremony in complete silence, spilling out from the edges of the forest. He tosses the other end of the second rope into the well. Afterwards, he sits down on the edge. And while the night closes its gates above him, announcing the end of an era of darkness, blooming like a cluster of promises in his chest which, despite his death, will keep on growing, he wonders if he should cut the ropes and let himself fall, or if it would be better, after all, to retrieve the rotting corpse of his brother and hold him up as a symbol of insurrection, and for his anniversary to light the darkness with a tremor of footsteps and noise, and for us to wake up tomorrow from this grim dream with the courage of a rising sea, tearing down the walls that silenced us, regaining our ground, having our say.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book, like the last one, is the product of much effort and affection. Given that I don’t know if I will ever have this opportunity again, I would like to thank all the people who, in one way or another, accompanied me in the process.
To my parents, Rafael and Nieves, for teaching me both to keep my feet on the ground and to lift myself up several hand spans above it; to my sister Adriana for her unstinting faith in me; to the old friends who followed the writing from close by or afar and who helped me: Izas, Jaime, Adriana, Pere, Ángela, Santi, Jesús, Galder, Igor, Ada, Ángel, Pablo and the Parretis Rafa and Mario; to Pedro de Hipérbole, my first passionate reader; to those who spread the word; to the Cantabrian and Mediterranean family.
I owe a special mention to the people of Libros del Silencio, above all my editor, Gonzalo, who believed in me, understood how to guide me, and allowed me to live out a dream. And not forgetting Irene (retrospectively), Marc and Pablo, who worked so hard over many weeks and treated me with respect and friendship. What immense talent you have, all of you.
Thank you to Koldo Asua for lighting the way.
And my thanks to Ana Cristina, for countless reasons: from Quinta da Regaleira to today, now, as someone is reading this page.
PUSHKIN PRESS
Pushkin Press was founded in 1997, and publishes novels, essays, memoirs, children’s books—everything from timeless classics to the urgent and contemporary.
Our books represent exciting, high-quality writing from around the world: we publish some of the twentieth century’s most widely acclaimed, brilliant authors such as Stefan Zweig, Marcel Aymé, Antal Szerb, Paul Morand and Yasushi Inoue, as well as compelling and award-winning contemporary writers, including Andrés Neuman, Edith Pearlman and Ryu Murakami.
Pushkin Press publishes the world’s best stories, to be read and read again. Here are just some of the titles from our long and varied list. For more amazing stories, visit www.pushkinpress.com.
THE SPECTRE OF ALEXANDER WOLF
GAITO GAZDANOV
‘A mesmerising work of literature’ Antony Beevor
BINOCULAR VISION
EDITH PEARLMAN
‘A genius of the short story’ Mark Lawson, Guardian
TRAVELLER OF THE CENTURY
ANDRÉS NEUMAN
‘A beautiful, accomplished novel: as ambitious as it is generous, as moving as it is smart’ Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Guardian
BEWARE OF PITY
STEFAN ZWEIG
‘Zweig’s fictional masterpiece’ Guardian
THE WORLD OF YESTERDAY
STEFAN ZWEIG
‘The World of Yesterday is one of the greatest memoirs of the twentieth century, as perfect in its evocation of the world Zweig loved, as it is in its portrayal of how that world was destroyed’ David Hare
JOURNEY BY MOONLIGHT
ANTAL SZERB
‘Just divine… makes you imagine the author has had private access to your own soul’ Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
BONITA AVENUE
PETER BUWALDA
‘One wild ride: a swirling helix of a family saga… a new writer as toe-curling as early Roth, as roomy as Franzen and as caustic as Houellebecq’ Sunday Telegraph
THE PARROTS
FILIPPO BOLOGNA
‘A five-star satire on literary vanity… a wonderful, surprising novel’ Metro
I WAS JACK MORTIMER
ALEXANDER LERNET-HOLENIA
‘Terrific… a truly clever, rather wonderful book that both plays with and defies genre’ Eileen Battersby, Irish Times
SONG FOR AN APPROACHING STORM
PETER FRÖBERG IDLING
‘Beautifully evocative… a must-read novel’ Daily Mail
THE RABBIT BACK LITERATURE SOCIETY
PASI I IMARI JÄÄSKELÄINEN
‘Wonderfully knotty… a very grown-up fantasy masquerading as quirky fable. Unexpected, thrilling and absurd’ Sunday Telegraph
RED LOVE: THE STORY OF AN EAST GERMAN FAMILY
MAXIM LEO
‘Beautiful and supremely touching… an unbearably poignant description of a world that no longer exists’ Sunday Telegraph
THE BREAK
PIETRO GROSSI
‘Small and perfectly formed… reaching its end leaves the reader desirous to start all over again’ Independent
FROM THE FATHERLAND, WITH LOVE
RYU MURAKAMI
‘If Haruki is The Beatles of Japanese literature, Ryu is its Rolling Stones’ David Pilling
BUTTERFLIES IN NOVEMBER
AUÐUR AVA ÓLAFSDÓTTIR
‘A funny, moving and occasionally bizarre exploration of life’s upheavals and reversals’ Financial Times
BARCELONA SHADOWS
MARC PASTOR
‘As gruesome as it is gripping… the writing is extraordinarily vivid… Highly recommended’ Independent
THE LAST DAYS
LAURENT SEKSIK
‘Mesmerising… Seksik’s portrait of Zweig’s final months is dignified and tender’ Financial Times
BY BLOOD
ELLEN ULLMAN
‘Delicious and intriguing’ Daily Telegraph
WHILE THE GODS WERE SLEEPING
ERWIN MORTIER
‘A monumental, phenomenal book’ De Morgen
THE BRETHREN
ROBERT MERLE
‘A master of the historical novel’ Guardian
Copyright
Pushkin Press
71–75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ
Original text © 2013 Iván Repila
Published by arrangement with The Ella Sher Literary Agency
English translation © 2015 Sophie Hughes
Originally published in Spanish as
El niño que robó el caballo de Atila
This translation first published by Pushkin Press in 2015
ISBN 978 1 782271 45 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from Pushkin Press
www.pushkinpress.com
