On Points (256 pages) is the story of a group of individuals who are required to attend a driver’s licence points recovery course. They are all suffering from loneliness, but the course will force them to work together, overcoming their solitude in order to discover each other’s needs, hidden desires and insecurities, and capacity for love. In a normal situation, one that may not be to our liking, we are given the opportunity to transcend our own borders.

The novel is divided into twenty chapters. Adela is waiting outside a driving school on the Tambre industrial estate north of Santiago de Compostela. She was caught while driving over the limit, which meant that she lost the last points on her driver’s licence and has to do a course. Life hasn’t been easy. Her husband, Suso, had an affair with a friend of hers, so now she is on her own with two children and only her sister, Reme, to help her. She delivers newspapers in the mornings and looks after an old woman in the afternoons. There is a man in his twenties, who is also waiting to attend the course. At eight o’clock, a woman arrives and opens up the school.

The man who was waiting with Adela is called Paco de Flora. He is addicted to speed. Ever since he was a child, when he used to ride an old bike without brakes, or go skiing, or drive motorboats. As soon as he could, he got himself a Yamaha 50 cc, but it wasn’t fast enough for him, and he would pay others to be able to drive their Honda CBR. He opted not to go to university and signed up for a course in electromechanics. His parents weren’t best pleased, but at least he was happy, especially when he bought a second-hand Jaguar and did it up himself. In the early hours of one morning, however, he was caught speeding on the motorway between Santiago and Padrón, which is why he also is attending this course, so that he can get his licence back.

It is Marité’s birthday – she is fifty today – but she is not expecting to receive any congratulations, since she has no friends and no work colleagues to speak of. She has worked the last 36 years in a discount store where the owners don’t even talk to each other. Her mother, the only one who cared about her, died ten years earlier after suffering from Alzheimer’s, so in the evening she will celebrate on her own by eating some seafood, having a glass of champagne, and watching her favourite series on Galician TV. She hasn’t had a happy life. Her husband left the day after their wedding to work as a welder in Paris, fell off the scaffolding, and died. The only pleasure she found was drinking alcohol, which she started doing at weekends, to help with her insomnia, but which soon spread to the rest of the week. When she got hit from behind at a roundabout, she assumed it would be the other driver’s fault, but they made her do a breathalyzer test and discovered that she was over the limit.

The teacher of the course is Don Adolfo. He sets the students – seventeen men, three women – an initial questionnaire to do and quickly imposes his authority, so that they realize there is a distance between them. Some fishermen from the west coast make fun of him and can’t work out how to switch on the computer. Don Adolfo answers their remarks by also speaking in Galician and using gheada, an aspirated form of the language used on the coast, although he is giving the course in Spanish. He recognizes Marité. He used to frequent the discount store where she works, but had a disagreement with the owners and doesn’t go there anymore. He can’t help finding her still attractive, shapely and servile, and dares to greet her personally. She reminds him of Ava Gardner in Mogambo. This is the only chapter that is narrated in the first person.

There is a twenty-minute break. Rosa in the driving school café has everything ready – coffee, sponge cakes, croissants, sandwiches – and serves the students efficiently. The fishermen are still annoyed by Don Adolfo’s superior treatment of them, and amused by the approach he made towards Marité. Marité herself is a bit offended, and keen to avoid further contact with the teacher, since she doesn’t want the others making fun of her. A student, Xosé Carlos, introduces himself to Paco. Another student, Puri, is there, covering for her boyfriend, who claimed she was the driver when the car was caught on a speed camera. A third student arrives a little later – he is Tupé, and no one messes with him. Not only was he caught speeding, but he laid into one of the civil guards who stopped him. Even the fishermen are afraid of him.

The students are relieved when it is time to leave on the first day. Some have people coming to pick them up; others have to take the bus. It’s a bit of a walk to the bus stop, and there is a sudden hailstorm, but only Xosé Carlos has an umbrella, which he invites Adela, Paco, and Tupé to shelter under. Adela finds this situation unusual, but also enticing. Tupé, who has been in prison and lost the love of his life, who didn’t want to know about him, wishes that he could behave normally, but finds it difficult having a woman so close to him, although the one he really likes is Puri with her ripped jeans. He realizes that acting as a hard man has left him feeling very isolated.

Xosé Carlos is a substitute Maths teacher – when he can get the work. He likes it when the teachers he is replacing are off work because of depression, since this tends to last a long time. He is also a web designer, though this pays badly. And a passionate poet, whenever he falls for a woman. The trouble is he never gets around to polishing his poems and making them presentable. He has been paid 3,000 euros to accept a fine for speeding and attend the course in place of a young woman from a rich family who doesn’t want her parents to know. He falls for the secretary of the driving school, Merche, as soon as he goes to pay the course fee and uses all sorts of excuses to phone her up, but then he is given two websites to design and doesn’t have time. Merche is worried that Xosé Carlos will be a problem. Xosé Carlos doesn’t realize that Merche is an avid reader and he would have done better to talk to her about literature.

There has been a robbery at the driving school. All the computers have been stolen and have had to be replaced. Merche is secretly pleased about this since she was fed up of using the old ones. Don Adolfo decides to try a new approach. It is imperative that he draw close to Marité, so he resolves to be much friendlier in class. The students are taken aback by this change in attitude. He cracks jokes about the civil guards and is the first to go to the café during break. He makes his peace with the fishermen. Meanwhile a paraplegic called Tomás arrives. He is going to give a talk about the consequences of traffic accidents. Don Adolfo asks Marité to stay behind after class. He has something important to tell her and promises to give her a lift in his car.

Santi and Anselmo drink their coffee together. Santi is a lorry driver. He is married and has three children, but has always felt more attracted to men. He has his first homosexual experience with an Italian lorry driver named Giuseppe. When Anselmo tells him he is afraid of the height of lorry cabins, Santi suggests he accompany him on a trip to Seville, and Anselmo agrees. Anselmo has been caught smuggling hashish from Tangier. He has taken all sorts of drugs and done anything to pay for them. Now he is trying to stay clean, so he avoids going outside with the others to smoke a cigarette. This doesn’t stop him being summoned to the police station and questioned about the robbery, which he finds unfair.

When Marité gets nervous, she resorts to counting objects around her. She is nervous now because of the fact Don Adolfo has asked to see her after class and cannot concentrate on what Tomás is saying. She counts the heads of the other students, the coats on the rack, pencils, bags… and manages to calm down. She is walking towards the bus stop when Adolfo passes in his car and stops to pick her up. They decide to go to her place just for a chat. Marité again feels nervous, can’t find her keys, and almost spills Adolfo’s beer on top of him. Adolfo confesses that he hates his ex-wife and their bulimic son, having to pay out money, and doesn’t want to end up as an embittered old man, for which reason he would be grateful if they could chat from time to time. He touches her arm. Marité agrees, but also implies that she would like him to leave. She is then annoyed with herself for letting her life slip through her fingers and not grasping the opportunities that present themselves.

On the Saturday, Adela arrives early and goes to the café, where Rosa is cleaning up from the day before. They discuss the change in Don Adolfo’s attitude, from being pompous to cracking jokes. Merche, the secretary, comes in and says she saw Marité getting into his car the previous evening. Adela doesn’t think this is the reason – after all, Marité was there on the first day, when Don Adolfo offended everybody with his behaviour, and there’s nothing wrong with giving someone a lift. She has since discovered that the old woman she looks after in the afternoons is Paco’s grandmother, Elisa, who suggests that Adela and Paco would make a very good couple, even though Adela is a few years older. Adela is not averse to the idea.

A highly qualified psychologist comes to address the group and succeeds in offending everybody by suggesting that those who commit infractions should pay for the medical treatment. Santi protests. Nobody meant to put themselves in that situation. That would be like getting smokers or heavy drinkers to pay for their treatment. Don Adolfo has to intervene to prevent a riot. Everyone congratulates Santi on his speech, though the only person he wants to see is Anselmo. Anselmo has left early, however. The following Friday will be the last day of the course, and one of the fishermen proposes organizing a dinner. When Marité expresses her approval, Don Adolfo agrees. At the end of class, he suggests that the two of them go for dinner, but Marité claims to have a prior engagement. Xosé Carlos offers to help Merche in reception. When he tells her he is a substitute teacher who writes poetry, Merche revises her opinion of him and offers him a lift to the centre.

On the bus ride back to Santiago, Adela falls asleep on Paco’s shoulder. Paco is delighted and hopes that this is the prelude to something. Merche gives Xosé Carlos and Rosa a lift and surprises them by not giving way or by overtaking brusquely. When they reach the centre, they decide to get something to eat. On leaving the bus, Adela trips and cuts her hand. Paco is there to lift her up, but it’s Tupé who hails a taxi and gets her to hospital, where she receives some stitches. Neither man seems prepared to hand the initiative to the other, and it amuses Adela to find herself the object of so much attention.

Tupé is the first to make way and he leaves the others to it in order to return to his untidy home in a village. He thinks the mess he finds is a reflection of his existence. When his father was around, they argued a lot, but at least he wasn’t alone. His father had been a cook on board ships and then in a hotel in Zurich. He had been a hard man, and Tupé had admired him as a child. Tupé works out for half an hour, takes a shower, gets dressed, and then goes to the local disco, though he’d really rather be in a bar in Santiago where they dance Latin American dances and the women are beautiful. At the bottom of his glass, he sees the face of Adela and regrets having given up so easily.

The inspector in charge of looking into the robbery is Serafín Martínez. He has three cases on the go, all of which are unresolved. When there’s nothing to go on, he likes to revisit the scene of the crime, to at least give the impression he’s doing something. Merche takes it all with a pinch of salt and smiles sardonically. Rosa is impressed by his air of authority and feels that she should salute whenever he comes into the café. The inspector interviews a few of the students. He is suspicious mostly about Paco, Tupé, Anselmo (who has been convicted of drug smuggling), and Puri (whose boyfriend has a van), but doesn’t manage to get any leads.

Merche, Rosa, and Xosé Carlos had gone for lunch together, but Merche had quickly made her excuses, and Rosa and Xosé Carlos had stayed behind, drinking coffee liquor. Rosa had enjoyed Xosé Carlos’s company, his enthusiasm, and was considering the possibility of a relationship. She had stopped studying early and gone to work in pubs, sharing a flat with some friends. Then she had got pregnant, but the father, Xocas, hadn’t wanted to be involved. He had emigrated to London, then to Australia, and finally ended up as a drug addict. Rosa had raised the child, Xián, on her own. She had gone back to live with her parents, but found the atmosphere suffocating, so had got a tiny apartment for the two of them. Then she had got a job working in a bar during the day, not at night, so she could better attend to the child’s needs. When the driving school had opened, she had gone to meet the owners, and they had put her in charge of the café. She had been there for twelve years.

Xosé Carlos is in heaven after the protracted lunch with Rosa. He has put all thought of Merche aside. But he cannot understand why Rosa didn’t respond to his phone calls and messages all week. And when he enters the school on the last day of the course, she ignores him and goes into the café. Marité, meanwhile, has decided to give Don Adolfo the green light and, at the beginning of class, gives him an obvious smile. She is not going to let this opportunity slip by to change her life, otherwise she is afraid she will end up being old and alone. Santi is upset that there has been no reaction from Anselmo. He doesn’t want to appear too interested. But Anselmo has other worries – he feels the inspector has singled him out because of his past as a drug addict. The only person he stayed in contact with from that time was María, a sweet girl, also a junkie, who later died of an overdose. He has never wanted to steal from anybody, even when he had an addiction to feed.

Adela is interested in having a relationship with Paco, it excites her to think about him, but she also knows people will make fun of her for going out with a younger man and she finds it difficult to imagine a normal life with him, looking after the children, going to the supermarket, meeting up with her friends. Paco isn’t there when she goes to look after Elisa. She doesn’t know this, but he has been sitting in a café near where she lives, watching her come and go. He has done this before – he spied on a girl from school, and then on a physics teacher who kept failing everybody in class until Paco found out that he liked watching porno movies and threatened to out him if he didn’t pass the class. He plans to confess his love for Adela after the dinner that night. Tupé wonders whether to go to the dinner. He hasn’t felt well all week and doesn’t see the point. That is until Adela enters the classroom and flashes him a smile. He wishes he hadn’t withdrawn from the hospital so quickly.

For the dinner, Xosé Carlos is dressed to kill, but the only one he really wants to impress is Rosa. Adela is finding Paco a little puerile and prefers the company of Tupé, who says he has a passion for miniature figures and tanks and also confesses that he has never married, but likes children. Marité and Don Adolfo enter the restaurant as if they are already a couple. Merche’s suspicions are confirmed. Merche has come with her husband, Daniel, who sits next to Xosé Carlos. It turns out they are both Maths teachers and neither has a very high opinion of the other. Santi finds Anselmo very attractive, but cannot help noticing that he is somehow absent. Rosa ends up sitting some way off from Xosé Carlos. She doesn’t want Merche noticing her attraction for Xosé Carlos and resolves, if necessary, to send him her address by WhatsApp, so they can be together after the dinner.

Some decide to continue the party by heading to a pub in the centre, but Don Adolfo and Marité, Merche and her husband, claim to have to work in the morning. Some of those driving are over the limit and without a licence, but this doesn’t stop them taking their cars. Adela comes to say goodbye to Merche, showing her a pen drive just like the one Merche had stolen during the robbery, which she says Paco has given her with some rap music she can listen to. Merche is stunned and deduces that Paco was responsible for the robbery. As they are heading home, they join a long line of cars who have been stopped by the police. It seems the party is going to finish early.

This is a highly entertaining narrative about a group of people who appear to have nothing in common, but are forced to do a course together because they have all lost the points on their licence. We learn about their needs and anxieties and how some are attracted towards each other and seek to be together to overcome the loneliness they feel. We become involved with the characters and want to find out what happens to them – will Adela choose Paco or Tupé? Will Tupé manage to step outside the defensive shield he has erected around himself? Will Don Adolfo’s seductive charms achieve the desired result? On Points serves as an amusing and incisive commentary on the differences between people, which when put together form a society, and was a worthy winner of the Blanco Amor Award in 2018.

Synopsis © Jonathan Dunne