Morning Star (272 pages) is a modern classic of Galician literature and was awarded the prestigious Xerais Prize for Novels in 1998. It is an adventure novel in the mould of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and Moonfleet by John Meade Falkner, both of which are quoted at the beginning of the book. Morning Star refers to a merchant ship that sailed between England and Ceylon and was captured by pirates in 1828, but later rescued.

The novel is divided into eights parts and an appendix. In Part I, we are introduced to a tavern on the outskirts of Pontevedra, “The Dispute”, and the family that lives there. The tavern is dilapidated and is run by a man, his wife, and their thirteen-year-old son, Lourenzo. Even though the city is near, they hardly ever go there, and Lourenzo suspects his father had another life or trade in his youth. Sometimes his mother and he escape to the city when his father is hunting and visit a cousin of his mother’s, Ma Angela, who has a grandson, Carlos, but that is all. One day, a stranger, “dark as boiled octopus”, Lázaro Rivadulla, arrives at the tavern on a mule. He has a dry right hand and a long scar on his arm. Lourenzo’s mother is horrified and can’t help sobbing. Her health soon declines. Lázaro takes a room at the back of the inn, overlooking the stables and an oak tree, which Lourenzo is required to tidy. He would like to search the room, but only makes out some weapons and an ironclad box. During a storm, two more people arrive – a thin, blond man who is blind in one eye, and a short, dark man with thick lips and a large head. They request permission to stay the night, which Lázaro grants them, and explain that they’re coming from Santiago de Compostela, where a certain Rawhide went before the firing squad the day before. In the night, one of the men is killed, and the other escapes.

Gradually, other individuals start frequenting the tavern, a group of about thirty or forty men and women. Among them are the treacherous and shifty Judas, and the cruel and brutal Living Devil, who isn’t even afraid of Lázaro; also the women Anastasia, who is Living Devil’s partner and Judas’s sister, and Rosalía, who tells Lourenzo stories and is one of few people to show any concern for Lourenzo’s mother. It turns out they are a gang of bandits. A year and a half after Lázaro’s arrival, Lourenzo’s mother dies and is buried in the local cemetery. Lourenzo’s father subsides into a fit of melancholy for three days, but this gives Lourenzo greater freedom and he is able to go for walks, to hunt for hares, and to meet up with his only friend, Carlos. He determines to search Lázaro’s room when he is out by climbing the oak tree, but while he is doing this, Lázaro returns, and Lourenzo overhears a conversation between him and his father, in which Lázaro insists that the boy joins them. He can slip into houses, move the owners to pity, and act as a lookout. Lourenzo’s father agrees, so long as they both get their share of the booty. They are thieves. One day, a vicar, Don Avelino, from Beluso, and his niece, Helena, arrive to eat lunch in the tavern. They are coming from Lugo, where the vicar has just inherited the handsome sum of 600,000 reales, information which is not overlooked by Lourenzo’s father and a day labourer, Bertomeu, who acts as Lázaro’s henchman. Lourenzo cannot get over how pretty the niece is and describes her as an angel.

In Part II, Lourenzo takes part in his first assault. He is being used as a spy and informant, in the company of the Rosary Maker, who teaches him how to garner information without being noticed. The gang gains access to a house and steals some gold ounces, along with other possessions. The gang members start to treat Lourenzo as one of their own, but Lourenzo feels guilty about what they have done. Carlos arrives, and the two of them take a route Lourenzo has seen Lázaro take in the past, towards the slopes of Mount Acival. They are just about to return when they come across a secluded house with a group of men, one of whom is the dark man with a large head who came to the tavern. There is also a blind man called Farruco. There follows a discussion in which it becomes obvious that they are after something of Lázaro’s – the ironclad box – but don’t know where to find it. They tie the boys up and decide to have a bit of fun with Lourenzo by dunking him in the well. As he reaches the bottom, he thinks he sees a human figure propped against the wall. Things only get worse when Judas turns up – true to his name, it seems that he belongs to this gang as well – and to prevent Lourenzo telling Lázaro about his presence there he determines to drown him. However, the leader of the gang, Tomás of the Trails, appears and rebukes Judas, claiming that Lourenzo is only a boy, there is no need to be afraid of him, and he might prove useful. He entrusts Lourenzo with the task of spying on his father and Lázaro and, in particular, of discovering the whereabouts of the chest they are after. It turns out Tomás, who is cross-eyed and has a ponytail, is Portuguese. Judas tries to cut the boy’s neck to prevent him spilling his secret, but ends up gashing his shoulder instead. Tomás warns him not to lay a finger on Lourenzo – their safety depends on that of the other. It takes Lourenzo several months to recover from the wound, he even gets double pneumonia. His father is like a new man and takes assiduous care of him. A year passes.

In Part III, Lázaro has been asking Lourenzo about the house and well and, in particular, if he saw anything at the bottom of the well. The gang undertakes a new assault, for which they ride mules to the seaside and cross an estuary on boats to attack a rectory. Lourenzo’s task is to cut the rope attaching the bell to the house to prevent the occupants from sounding the alarm. They enter the house by force. A hunting dog attacks a member of the gang, but is quickly stabbed by Lázaro. Rabbit is shot dead by a man on the landing upstairs with a shotgun. It turns out to be the priest Don Avelino, Helena’s uncle, and Lourenzo is distraught to discover that they are assaulting the home of his angel. Lázaro demands the 600,000 reales from the inheritance. The priest doesn’t want to hand them over and is tied to a beam by his privates. They rape the maidservant and kill the manservant, but still the priest won’t talk. They kill the priest, who has been trying to protect his niece, and discover Helena in a secret room upstairs with the money. Lourenzo is desperate to save her. He realizes Judas and Brave are going to have their way with the girl before they leave, so he grabs the priest’s carbine and the servant’s shotgun, kills Brave, and knocks Judas to the floor. Helena and he then jump out of a first-floor window, during which Helena twists her ankle. With difficulty, they escape to a nearby mountain and hide behind some gorse bushes, where they are discovered by Lourenzo’s father. He takes them further up the mountain in an attempt to avoid the other bandits, but they are cut off by another gang member. Lourenzo’s father kills him with his knife, but his head is blown to pieces by Lázaro, who arrives on the scene. Just as they are about to lose all hope, Lázaro is attacked by a second hunting dog, Soult, which enables them to get away. They take refuge under a rock and stay there until midday, when the dog arrives with Lázaro’s useless right hand in its mouth.

In Part IV, Lourenzo and Helena, both orphans and dependent on each other, are on the run. First, they return to the village, where they receive some help from the maidservant’s sister and her husband, then to Marín, where Lourenzo intends to put Helena in a safe place and himself to escape. He dreads leaving Helena, however. They arrive in Marín during a progressive uprising in Pontevedra (the Solís Uprising of 1846), which means the Civil Guard are not there. They have breakfast in an inn and are planning to rest when Lourenzo spots Judas and Devil riding along the street. Soult leads them off along a side alley while Lourenzo and Helena escape inland to an area of large chestnut trees, where they take refuge, but are followed by Soult and the bandits, who shoot the donkey they were using. The two children remain hidden, and the bandits ride off. After a pause, they make for an old shepherd’s hut and then for the local village, where they receive help from an old woman. They then make for Pontevedra, where the city is in turmoil because of the uprising, intending to seek shelter with Ma Angela only to discover that she is dead and Carlos has left the city because of his Carlist sympathies. They bump into the Rosary Maker, who is dismayed to learn of the death of Lourenzo’s father, and hastily abandon the city in the direction of the tavern. On the way, Helena goes to relieve herself, and they are passed by Judas and Devil, who search the tavern and return along the road, believing the children still to be in Pontevedra. Judas is most afraid that the boy will seek help from Tomás. After they have left, the children go to the tavern, eat some food, Helena disguises herself as a boy, and they force open the ironclad box, which has a name on the lid – Morning Star – and two documents and a silver whistle inside. The whistle is identical to one that Tomás owns and uses as a signal for his gang.

In Part V, we discover the contents of the documents. The first is a letter dated 1830 from the Galician pirate Benito de Soto (the one responsible for capturing the Morning Star) to his boatswain, Hermogenes Loureiro, in which he bequeaths to him his house in Gatomorto with its well, water, and contents (the secluded house where Lourenzo was almost drowned). The second is a title deed dated 1832, in which Hermogenes transfers ownership of the house to Lázaro Rivadulla, even though it seems this document has been forged. There is obviously something hidden at the bottom of the well, which Lázaro and the others want to get their hands on. They make their way to Lugo, where Helena has some relatives, working in villages. In Caldas de Reis, they come across the blind man, Farruco, who sings a ballad about “The Infamous Life and Sad Death of Lourenzo Tasende”, Lourenzo’s father. He offers to accompany them to Lugo and then to take Lourenzo to Tomás for protection. They arrive in Santiago de Compostela on 23 April 1846, the day troops were sent from Madrid to defeat Solís’s rebel forces. They get caught up in the battle and take refuge in a pharmacy, where they bump into a gang member, Tiger. Lourenzo takes to his heels, is pursued by Tiger, who captures him, but is saved by the blind man, who arrives on horseback and kills Tiger. Among the troops from Madrid, Lourenzo spots his cousin Carlos. They leave Santiago in the direction of Lugo and, on the way, Farruco tells how Hermogenes, who was related to Tomás,  joined a slave ship in Brazil, the Defensor de Pedro, the crew rebelled, renamed the ship Burla Negra, and became pirates with Benito de Soto as their captain. They acquired a lot of booty, which they hid somewhere in Galicia. Benito de Soto was later hanged in Gibraltar (or escaped to America), and Farruco suspects that Lázaro killed Hermogenes and buried the treasure so he wouldn’t have to share it. In Lugo, Lourenzo leaves Helena with her relatives. Helena urges him to seek out his grandparents – his father’s parents, a scribe and a lady – and promises not to forget him. Lourenzo heads south for the winter.

In Part VI, Lourenzo is taken by Farruco to Tomás, who is hiding in an earthen house in the south. He explains to Tomás about the treasure, which he believes to be at the bottom of the well. He also practises reading with his father’s books: a Bible and two medical treatises. In the spring, they set out for Pontevedra, where Lourenzo’s cousin Carlos joins them, and then for the house with the well. The skeleton at the bottom turns out to be that of Hermogenes, the boatswain, who is sitting on a chest full of treasure. They hide the chest in Carlos’s house in Pontevedra and search for others, but to no avail. As they are searching, Lázaro turns up with his gang and starts shooting at them. They take refuge in the house. Lázaro offers to let them go if they will hand over the boy. Tomás and the others decide to try to escape under cover of darkness. Lourenzo is the first to go.

In Part VII, Lourenzo is captured as he makes his escape. He informs Lázaro that the treasure chest is in Carlos’s house in Pontevedra, but instead of giving them the address insists on going with them. He accuses Living Devil and Judas of belonging to both gangs and intending to kill Lázaro and steal the treasure. On the way to Pontevedra, Bertomeu, Lázaro’s henchman, shoots Devil from behind. Lázaro then shoots another gang member, while a third escapes. When they reach the tavern, a distinguished, white-haired old man is waiting on a landau. He asks to speak to the boy, who he believes to be his grandson. Lázaro is going to shoot him, but is assailed by Soult, the dog, which rushes out of the house. Lourenzo spots his beloved, Helena, in one of the windows. He blows on the whistle from the box; Tomás appears, shoots Bertomeu, and confronts Lázaro, whom he kills in close combat, despite being seriously wounded himself. The Civil Guard, alerted by the shots being fired, appears and engages in a gunfight with Tomás, while Lourenzo disappears into the trees. He waits out the night and then returns to the Dispute, where he comes across the dead body of the faithful Soult. His grandfather and Helena are no longer there. He falls asleep only to be woken by the arrival of the rest of Lázaro’s gang, except it turns out the real leader is Judas’s sister and Devil’s partner, Anastasia. Judas wants him dead, but Anastasia promises him an equal share of the treasure if he agrees to take them to it. On reaching Carlos’s street, they are opposed by Farruco and the others, who have been sent to guard the treasure, the Civil Guard arrives, Judas manages to reach Carlos’s house by taking Lourenzo hostage, but is then laid low by the blind man, who escapes through a window, while Judas and Lourenzo are arrested.

In Part VIII, Lourenzo spends months in prison, during which he is mistreated, conditions are abysmal, he turns as yellow as a corpse, and all he can do is watch the tide coming in and going out. He learns that Tomás and Rosalía are also captive, but are being kept in hospital; Judas and another gang member were released and then shot “while trying to escape”. Tomás is transferred to the prison and acts as his protector. Finally, one day, he is summoned to the director’s office and handed over to his grandfather and Helena, who have come to fetch him. This is almost the end of the story. Lourenzo marries Helena, they restore the Dispute, rename it Morning Star, and go to live there. He becomes a doctor and sets up a clinic in Pontevedra, while also attending to poor patients in his house. They have three children, who are happy and carefree. He discovers the reales that were stolen from the priest in the oak tree outside Lázaro’s old room. Tomás is released by a gang while on the way to Santiago to stand trial, and Lourenzo hears about a blind man and a man who sounds like Tomás singing ballads and performing acts in Pontevedra. He feels happy – he has Helena; he has a family; he has found himself; and he has learnt to read. But he does sometimes wonder what happened to the rest of Benito de Soto’s treasure, hidden somewhere in Galicia. In a short appendix, the author gives the historical background to the novel.

One of the most attractive aspects of this wonderful novel is the mixture of history and fiction. The author has studied the existence of gangs in the nineteenth century, some of whose members were sons of scribes, and brought it to life by adding elements of his own. It reads like an adventure novel, very much in line with the novels Treasure Island and Moonfleet, for which the author obviously has admiration, and therefore would appeal to an international audience. The narrative is fast-paced and contains details that reflect the author’s interest in folklore (myths and legends) and botany. All in all, it is one of the most successful books to have been written in Galician in the last quarter of a century and has maintained its allure since its initial publication in 1998.

Synopsis © Jonathan Dunne