Miguel Delibes

“Miguel Delibes, an ecologist humanist.”

The Holy Innocents tells the story, tragic and lyrical at the same time, of the dramatic existence of the marginalized inhabitants of a farm in Extremadura, Spain, in 1960, whose submission to their master marks and determines
their miserable daily lives. In this context of humiliation and injustice, one figure stands out: that of a mentally handicapped man named Azarías, a “holy innocent.” This character of “The Fool” functions as the means of wise Nature to deal with social injustice and the ecological disaster.

A landmark of Spanish culture, Los santos inocentes has been translated into twelve languages and adapted into a film by Mario Camus in 1984.

“No one reading his books could doubt his love of the natural world, expressed in a sober, realist style that is only poetic in its austerity.” The Guardian

“Passion in ordinary lives, sobriety and melancholy are the flavors of Delibes’s writing . . . with a profound empathy for nature and the poor. . . . The Holy Innocents [is] a ferocious story.” The Guardian

“[Delibes] is a master of compression, using the art of omission to convey a slow-burning sense of injustice. . . . Peter Bush’s exemplary translation remains faithful to Delibes’s Castilian original.” Tobias Grey, Financial Times
 
“Skillfully conveyed in Peter Bush’s translation. Delibes’s style is understated, though passion and rage seethe beneath the surface. . . . More than forty years after its first publication, The Holy Innocents still reads as a powerful indictment of dictatorship.” Michael Eaude, Times Literary Supplement
 
“A powerful tale of the essential struggle for human dignity, one that resonates with the regime changes of its author’s time—as well as those of our own.” Asymptote
 
“A clear and revealing picture, almost raw in parts… Vivid… strong.” M. A. Orthofer, Complete Review
 
“The Holy Innocents, for all of its ‘plain style,’ moves with a quickened pace, abetted by an arrangement of text on the page that affords leaps between dialogue and everything else.” Ron Slate, On the Seawall