Foreign Rights
An outstanding and unique story that will have a strong impact on the reader in a journey through the thin line between fantasy and reality. A story that will leave no one indifferent.
SUMMARY
The two children stopped to look around. That silence did not augur well. A few seconds passed and there was a loud crack. Someone, or something, had snapped a stick. The two friends turned pale. If it was an animal, it must be huge. Their hearts pounded against their chests.
Another stick was heard to break. This time, a lot closer. Whatever it was, it was coming closer, and it was approaching quickly. One of the children turned on the torch and shone it ahead. They could make out a giant sized silhouette hidden among the undergrowth, shying from the light, an enormous monkey-like species. The children started to move backwards, step by step, not turning their backs, trembling with fear, when a terrifying roar raged through the quiet of the night.
Since that day, every first night of summer waxing moon, year after year, the boys of the village ventured into the woods together so that the creature, who they had nicknamed the Bichogordo, could give them a fright. It became a ritual which made the boys feel grown up and able to confront their fears.
However, precisely the year that marked the thirtieth anniversary of the start of this tradition, something unexpected and violent happened in the woods that tore the calm of the village to shreds and had all of its inhabitants with their hearts in their mouths. An event that was to change the life of a ten-year-old boy for ever, a lad who, according to his father, let his mind wander too much. A boy whose name was Matías.
EDITORIAL
The creature of the woods is one of those stories that easily catch parents and children, making everybody to experience the pleasure of leaving their imagination free –boundless in the book-. The book also provokes a reflection on the meaning of success and the values of today’s society, those values that we apply to educate our children that they try to assimilate in the always difficult process of growing up.
Matías is a shy and happy ten-year-old boy who lives in a very particular world: he is able to talk to objects and animals. However, his relationship with them is far from ideal. Most of them are resentful, moaners, selfish or a bit naughty. It’s not always easy to deal with a pyromaniac match, a crooked bonsai or a napkin box that has lost a competition. But Matías doesn’t care much about it because, above all, in his world, amazing things are always happening.
The adults can’t understand his universe, and the worst is his father, Simón Rotundo, who doesn’t think like him at all! His father is a sharp publicist who owns an advertising agency; he is a successful executive who thinks that Matías should use his imagination for more profitable tasks to earn his living in the future.
Father and son will spend a few weeks in a small countryside village before deciding Matía’s future. At the village, where Simón Rotundo was born, there’s an annual tradition: every first summer waxing moon, the children go deep into the forest in search of a huge beast that gives them a fright. Matías decides to participate hoping to improve his relationship with his father and with the world. Everybody is convinced that the creature is just a neighbour disguised as a monster, but is that the reality?
Rich with nuances, the novel immerses in the conflicts of a child who tries to understand the world around him. The reader will also enjoy a grabbing, readable book of adventures and fears. A thrilling, tender, funny and adventure story set within a background of difficult relationships between parents and children. This is an involving read that will not leave readers indifferent.
Pedro Riera (Barcelona 1965) has a degree in Journalism. He has worked in television, cinema and advertising, mainly in directing and production. In 1997, he settled in Bosnia, where he worked for two years as a director, producer and scriptwriter for television and radio campaigns for an international organisation; and as a freelance photographer for Associated Press and several NGOs.
His experience in the Balkans has given rise to two novels: War Wounds (2004) and A Stop in the Field of Blackbirds (2005).
The legend of the Wood with no name is his first dabble into children’s and young adult literature, for which he has already been awarded the CCEI Literature Award.
- Grupo edebé
- Educación
- Publicaciones Generales
