If young readers want to meet witches flying around on broomsticks,
dog detectives eating sweets, peacocks with enormous, beautiful feathers
or tough, shady villains then they only have to read the collection
of stories los Cuentos de nunca acabar
y otros misterios (Never-ending
stories and other mysteries).
This masterly compilation of Cuban
stories is aimed at those readers – both
young and old – who hope to enjoy a few excellent, entertaining episodes
through a selection of short stories. This type of narrative, which
was pioneered in Cuba by Antonio Benítez Rojo in the eighties
and carried on by authors such as Rodolfo Pérez Velero and
Esther Suárez Durán, has quickly enjoyed enormous success
and gained an appeal that few genres have managed to achieve. The
immense popularity that this type of novel has received in Cuba,
notwithstanding the enormous number of sales in recent decades, has
given rise to a endless stream of these stories being written on
the Caribbean island.
Through this compilation
we are shown an entire series of wide-ranging mystery- and detective-themed
stories. Los cuentos de nunca acabar demonstrate
how entertainment and education can be combined for young readers
in such an adept way.
With a team of thirty writers, headed
by Enrique Pérez Díaz
and including journalists, poets and actors, we encounter texts that
tone down the norms of the genre and play with different styles,
whilst still paying homage to the great characters of the detective
novel. Though some of the stories are full of imaginary nuances,
whilst others tinged with typical crime-fiction features, it must
be said that they all are committed to fun, to entertainment and
even to social critique.
Whilst every story employs likeable characters and features children
and friendly animals, all of the main figures correspond to the archetypal
characters so loved by all young readers. If we read the stories
carefully, we realise that they all use a didactic, teacher character
to illustrate and show us humour, irony and, above all, they break
the Cuban social code and tell us about the society that surrounds
us in these stories.
It is for these reasons that
I recommend these magnificent stories and I congratulate the publisher
Union and the complier Enrique Pérez
Díaz for this initiative: not only for putting together a
collection in which fun and entertainment are guaranteed, but also
because these features are mixed with high-quality literature, which
has not been so abundantly present in recent times. Unfortunately,
I have to give you the bad news that the stories do indeed end and
that the author is thus lying to us. Nonetheless, we will surely
be given a surprise very soon and will be delighted by a second part,
which we await expectantly.
