Biography
Xelís de Toro is a Galician writer and performer based in the UK. He explores the meaning of literature through performance, vocal work and writing in action. Examples are given on his website www.xelisdetoro.net. He has published six works of fiction, most recently The Clowns from Paradise (1999), winner of the San Clemente Prize awarded by schoolchildren in Galicia, Feral River (2008), Galicia’s version of Joseph Conrad’s classic Heart of Darkness, and Etceteraly (2022), a homage to the creative power of literature. He also has one poetry collection, The Book of Invisible Bridges, and numerous children’s books. His work challenges any preconceptions we might have about the role of the author and the art of literature. He is the modern equivalent of the Galician avant-garde poet Manuel Antonio.
Synopsis
Feral River (248 pages) is Xelís de Toro’s fifth work of fiction and was first published in 2008. It follows a writer, Marqués’s journey upriver to investigate the causes of a boatman’s death in Romero, a town on the frontier. The book is divided into sixteen chapters and an epilogue of four chapters. Marqués is a writer from the east coast. He has gone to the frontier in search of work, and also to escape an obsessive father after the death of his mother. So far, he has been unsuccessful.
Sample
The stranger started out across the mud, where two boys were trying to catch a pig that had escaped from a yard. They kept throwing themselves on to it but it slipped from their arms as they fell and plastered themselves with slime. Then it waited for them and once more the boys’ yells were followed by the pig’s squeals. The stranger, a rucksack and a bag on his back, was calculating where to place his feet so as not to sink in. He kept as far from the scene as he could, to avoid being involved in the hullabaloo raised by a pig and two boys. When the animal again escaped from their fumbling fingers a sharp, violent report filled everybody with fear. The pig fell stock-still in the mud and from its neck spurted a stream of blood that spattered the boys’ cheeks.
They came to their feet and looked up at a strongly-built man with a big moustache and small grey eyes who was replacing his pistol in its holster. The pig-killer waved towards the dead animal and muttered through pursed lips:
‘Come on, take it away.’
Portico of Galician Literature 