Una isla en el Mar Rojo

Ediciones 98 republishes the novel Una isla en el mar rojo, by Wenceslao Fernández Flórez, published for the first time in 1939. It is one of the great novels about the Civil War, a conflict that the author survived in Madrid and which he novelized in this work. Wenceslao Fernández Flórez (1885-1964) was a Galician humorist who was very popular before and after the war and also for his film adaptations. This book is a chronicle of what happened. The author warns: "It is more a child of my memory than of my fantasy". It places the reader in Madrid, at the beginning of the Civil War. The protagonist is Ricardo, a lawyer who narrowly escapes assassination and takes refuge in the embassy. It coincides with what Fernández Flórez lived through. It is a chronicle of the horror of red Madrid. The protagonists are the hatred, terror, cruelty or envy of the rabble (he says it is the root of communism). Almost no one is spared. There are journalists who encourage crime and officials and intellectuals who want to prosper. There are terrible episodes told with great simplicity, such as the communist who is forced to participate in a firing squad or the communist nurse raped by her own people. Within this, the singularity of this novel is the narration of the daily life of refugees in an embassy. The book reflects the moral consequences of all this. In revolutions, the worst of the human being comes to the surface: there are denunciations. There is the panic of the bell ringing, the elevator going up, the car stopping. International solidarity fails and the vultures of the world come in. Then there is the individual drama of the protagonist. "We all think we have a mission in the world.... It seems to me that no more work awaits me among men, whom I have ceased to appreciate". He ceases to believe in love, in women and in friendship. Even when he frees himself, he does not regain his lost joy. In short, it is an interesting novel, very black, which obviously destroys the good image of the Republic.