Listing Ship (192 pages) is a novel about the simmering tensions in a Galician village before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. It is also a novel about the possibilities of modernism, progress, in a rural setting, the opportunity for different forces to come together in search of the common good. The novel is set in Sernanselle, a village to the southwest of Santiago de Compostela, in the Arousa estuary, based on the village where the author himself grew up.

The novel is divided into seven parts. In Part I, it is November 1935 and a mother dictates a letter to her son, Ramón, who has emigrated. She misses him and hopes he may come home in time for Easter. She dictates the letter to her daughter, María, while preparing some local pies or empanadas. María takes the letter to the house of Roiz Bustelo, where there is already a pile of them. Roiz Bustelo is president of the local Union. He has sold his property in Buenos Aires and wants to use the money to set up a dairy factory. He experiments with grape varieties, has found that a local blond cow produces more milk than a Swiss import. He is not against the Catholic Cooperative, if they can work together for the common good. His son, Amaro, is friends with María. Camoiras walks María home. It is obvious he has a crush on her. He goes to the house of Don Antonio, the Master or Señorito, where the whisky maker is busy distilling liquor. There are two people from the Catholic Cooperative there, Xacobe de Dominga and Mariño. The latter keeps reciting from a bulletin of the Archbishopric of Santiago de Compostela, which is how he was taught to read. Camoiras discusses with Don Antonio the possibility of buying a machine to do the threshing. Don Antonio is more concerned about a dying man, Reboiriñas, and calls for the priest.

In Part II, María goes to the wetlands in search of cockles and green grass. She is accompanied by Amaro, and they kiss. Amaro is interested in the archaeology of the area. On the way back, they bump into Camoiras, who wants their help – María, because she is president of the Workers’ Society, and Amaro, because he is in the Galician Youth Group. Camoiras is determined to kick out the local bosses and to defend the Republic. María’s mother dictates another letter to her son. She is afraid they may lose their fields if Ramón doesn’t come home soon to defend the mother and daughter, who can’t defend themselves. This time, she dictates the letter to Cheíño, Ramón’s godson, because María is at a meeting with Camoiras.

In Part III, Sernanselle is known as the “Russian village” because of the wish people there have to work communally. Ismael da Pedra has a book on veterinary science, which he uses to try to diagnose illnesses and treat sick animals. He is also the one who introduced the idea of stabling animals outside the house. The Cooperative Union of Milk Producers of Laíño has a truck that they use to distribute their milk. It is driven by Amando Caride. María and Amaro are with him. The river Sar has flooded, and they are finding it difficult to make progress. In Padrón, the local Fascists come out onto the balcony of their house and laugh at them, shouting in favour of Spain and against Russia. While María and Amaro are away, they come after Caride and give him a bloody nose. The three of them just manage to make it out, despite the rising water. María’s mother writes another letter to Ramón, telling him the local news, including how everybody is against Russia now and the local priest has excommunicated María because she belongs to the Workers’ Society. She hopes she will have a chance to see him again before she dies.

In Part IV, a group of stonecutters are laying the foundations for the Factory of Dairy Products, under Roiz’s instructions. A woman arrives, carrying a baby, who keeps on crying. Bernalda thinks he has the croup, so his mother takes him to see Don Antonio. Don Antonio diagnoses diphtheria, a contagious disease that could affect the other children in the village, and sends Roiz off to Padrón to fetch him a serum. The stonecutters speak to each other in their own dialect. Camoiras has a gramophone at home. When he plays music, people come and sit in the shade of his house to listen. Ismael da Pedra tells him he’s finished organizing assignments for the threshing machine. Silvestre, the fisherman, comes to sell his cockles, and they share a jug of wine. He tells Camoiras how the priest has painted the flag of the monarchy on the church window. Roiz returns with the serum for the woman’s child. Camoiras is sceptical that Don Antonio will know how to cure the child, when only last year another child died of the same disease. Xacobe de Dominga tells Don Antonio how Mariño, da Couta and da Bernalda are building themselves a type of boat, a gamela, to go fishing for sole. A swarm of bees is approaching the village; everyone gets excited because the bees will belong to whoever can get them to settle in their hive. Don Antonio bumps into Amaro, who’s preparing a catalogue of archaeological remains in the local area. They are interrupted by Xacobe de Dominga. Amaro accuses Xacobe of destroying an ancient stone wall; Xacobe accuses him of being an atheist. There are underlying tensions in the village. Children from the village surround the milk producers’ truck, some shouting in favour of the Union, others in favour of the Catholic Cooperative. Ramón’s mother dictates another letter to her son, even though María doesn’t want to take it down. A woman in the village was cursed and accuses another woman of being a witch. When three men are about to bind her, Camoiras intervenes and escorts the accused woman away.

In Part V, the villagers help ploughing each other’s fields. The farmers are experimenting with fertilizers and corn seed. They discuss different breeds of pig. Da Couta keeps planning the construction of his gamela boat, which he is going to use to catch sole. Ismael da Pedra explains his plans for purchasing and sharing out a threshing machine and suggests that the members of the Catholic Cooperative join the initiative. The villagers are surprised to see Don Antonio come out to put his name down. Ramón’s mother dictates another letter to her son about the goings-on in the village, including how a boy accidentally hit Xacobe de Dominga on the head and Xacobe was angry, thinking he had done it deliberately, and how Ramón’s mother was bitten by a snake, fainted and only came to when Don Antonio pressed a hot iron down on her leg.

In Part VI, Amaro is reading a book on palms of Hebrón he has bought in Santiago. The stonecutters have finished the foundations of the Dairy Factory and are working on the outer wall. Roiz, Camoiras and some others discuss which threshing machine to buy. The Dion-Button from Lugo would last a hundred years, but the Lister from Santiago is a better price and it would be easier to get spare parts. Silvestre, the fisherman, gives his opinion on the gamela boat the others are building. It needs some work, and it’s sort of heavy. He advises them to give it a coat of fish oil and pitch. Mariño goes to ask Camoiras to get him the fish oil and pitch from Padrón. Camoiras agrees if Mariño will continue to recite passages from the bulletin of the Archbishopric of Santiago de Compostela. Mariño drinks and recites passages. Amaro and María meet at the cistern at Rañadoiros, the cistern villagers use to irrigate their fields. They declare their love for one another in a ditch, before the rising sun.

In Part VII, the local priest is ringing the church bells wildly. There has been a military coup. Roiz, Camoiras and others plan to continue milking the cows and transporting cheese and butter – people still need to eat. Up in the hills, Amaro is studying ancient petroglyphs, trying to copy them down. Xacobe de Dominga appears from behind a clump of broom with a shotgun, calls Amaro an American, a Russian, a separatist, and fires two shots. The local mayor forms a committee for the defence of the Republic and orders the requisition of weapons and ammunition from all those who are opposed to the Republic. María asks Ramón if Amaro has come down from the mountain. Ramón replies that he hasn’t. Amaro returns, he’s only wounded. He tells his parents that he wants to go to Santiago to fight against the Fascists. His father goes to lie down. Amaro then asks his mother who it was got María pregnant. He wonders whether it was Xacobe de Dominga. Camoiras and Lampaio get ready to go to Santiago for the threshing machine. Mariño comes to remind them about the fish oil and pitch. Although Amaro claims not to have seen the person who shot him, everyone is convinced it’s Xacobe.

Coruña and Vigo have already fallen to the Fascists. Lampaio comes running to inform Roiz that Camoiras has been taken captive. He went to Padrón to confront Xacobe de Dominga, but when he said the Civil Guard would arrest him, it was Camoiras himself they arrested. Amando, the driver of the truck, has been killed. He didn’t want to stop and accelerated away, so they shot him. Lampaio advises Roiz and his wife to escape as quickly as possible. He says the Fascists hate them because of the Union and the Dairy Factory. Ismael da Pedra also has to leave. He plans to join the resistance up in the mountains, but wants to say goodbye to his wife and children first. Don Antonio goes to Roiz’s house to tell them they can hide in his house. Ventura and the Fascists arrive in the village. Camoiras’ sister, Ilduara, confronts them and asks about her brother. Ventura beats her and, when Don Antonio intervenes, beats him as well, despite his social standing and the priest’s attempt to get Ventura to restrain himself. They go to Ismael da Pedra’s house, but he has left. They then visit María’s mother, who says she doesn’t know where María is, but will be sure to inform the priest when she returns.

Amaro and María arrive back in Sernanselle. They have been in Santiago. They join a meeting of villagers in Don Antonio’s kitchen. The three people most in danger are Roiz, Amaro and María. It is imperative they escape. Roiz is too old, he doesn’t feel he can make the journey. But then Mariño tells them to take the gamela, they can escape by ship (so long as it doesn’t sink or list). María takes Amaro outside and tells him to escape with his parents, there’s not room for them all in the gamela, she is going to join the resistance in the mountains. Don Antonio himself drives Amaro and his parents to the wetlands, so they can launch the gamela. María’s mother dictates her last letter to her son, who it turns out is Ramón Roiz Bustelo, telling him not to come back to the village, all is lost, even the priest has joined the forces opposed to the Republic. From among the reeds, Amaro sees Ventura and the other Fascists driving Camoiras’ car. First, they shoot the local teacher, and then Ventura drives the car straight at Camoiras. Amaro jumps out of the boat and shoots at the car, but it is too late, the car runs over Camoiras, breaking his neck. The car continues, however, Ventura is dead, and the car plunges into the river. Xacobe de Dominga escapes, only to fall into a sinkhole. Meanwhile, the gamela with Amaro’s parents has been washed downstream. Amaro runs after them and, although they’ve lost an oar, manages to steer the listing ship towards the sea.

This is an extraordinary novel which successfully analyzes the push for modernism and collective work in a Galician village in the build-up to the Spanish Civil War. For a time, people are prepared to work together, the members of the Union and the Catholic Cooperative. New methods are put into practice, new breeds and hybrids are examined. Machinery is bought to lighten the heavy agricultural workload. Even the Señorito, Don Antonio, is prepared to join the collective effort and does his best to help the local people by curing their diseases. But the military coup in 1936 sees the rise of the Fascists and puts an end to the life of the Russian village of Sernanselle. Only Vilagarcía de Arousa has not fallen to the Fascists, and few escape – Ismael da Pedra and María to the mountains, Amaro with his parents on their listing ship in the direction of the sea. This is an excellent study of the push in the rural world not to get left behind, but to use the agricultural and technological advances of that time to its advantage. Listing Ship was awarded the prestigious Xerais Prize for novels.

Synopsis © Jonathan Dunne