Literary fame again

Juviles' starring role in La Mano de Fatima, the hugely successful historical novel by Ildefonso Falcones, continues to raise our village's literary profile. What with novel-clutching tourists on coach tours poking around the streets to see where all the moorish women were murdered, it's getting like Bronte Country, only with more ham. An English translation is promised for next year, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone is optioning movie rights. I've only managed the first dozen chapters (at 1,000 pages of dense Spanish it's a fairly daunting tome) and it strikes me as being somewhat overwritten, but the story of sectarian slaughter during the muslim rebellion of 1568 is fascinating. Falcones visited the village earlier this year (they named a street after him) and there are photos and a fairly amusing video on the ayuntamiento website. Here's the man himself signing copies of the novel for the eager bookworms of the high Alpujarra. This was probably before the obligatory tour of the ham factory.

Vegetarians look away now

A couple of posts ago I wrote about the Christmas pig slaughter in the village. Quite apart from providing masses of delicious pork products, the matanza is an important social event, drawing dozens of people together to work, eat and party as the pig meets his doom and the sausages take shape. Here, courtesy of the town hall website, is a series of 93 pictures of a matanza held on the 1st and 2nd January this year. Along with fairly gruesome shots of pigs' innards spilling out of carcasses and old women up to their elbows in blood while they make black pudding, there are lots of images conveying the infectious, convivial atmosphere. In this one below, I think we see the vet (who is legally required to attend the slaughter) doing an analysis with his microscope. Surrounded by kids, and plied with wine. I love rural Spain!