Elena Quiroga

Spanish National Critics Prize 1960

Tadea, motherless and accustomed to a quiet, happy, and unrestricted childhood, moves to her aunt and uncle's house. Soon her universe full of curiosity and innocence will be reduced to a hostile world, full of warnings, prohibitions, and silences (aunt Concha, a fanatic and authoritarian Catholic, always watching, prohibiting and punishing). Loneliness and the weight of orphanhood – of which she cannot speak – push her to look for an escape: walks in the garden, glances towards the well that returns her words, the relief of being alone… But these escapades almost always come up against punishments. Tadea drowns in an environment in which everything remains closed, full of sadness.

The novel meticulously recreates this microcosm – the ways of life, the mentality, the day-to-day work –, almost always in scenes, with the richness of polyphony.

Through vivid dialogues and insightful introspection, Quiroga offers a lyrical and honest portrayal of human complexities, diverging from traditional social realism to delve into intimate emotional landscapes.

“Elena Quiroga was one of the pillars of the last half century, one of the great female representatives of the novel.” Manuel Seco