Xabier Puente Docampo

Xabier Puente Docampo , born in Spanish Rábade in 1946, is one of Galicia’s leading writers of children’s and young adults’ literature. After finishing his studies he worked as teacher, columnist, scriptwriter, editor for Radio Nacional de España, actor and director for theatre and television. Furthermore, in 1989 he was a founding member of the Asociación Galega do Libro Infantil e Xuvenil (GALIX), whose board of directors he was on for five years. Ever since his debut in 1986, with »O misterio das badaladas« (t: The mystery of the chimes), he has published more than twenty volumes of stories, first reader books, and novels for children and young adults, which have been translated into Spanish, Catalan, Basque and Portuguese. Alongside his literary work, Docampo has been involved for over three decades with teacher training and the advancement of teaching methods. He has written essays on teaching and education, co-written several school books in Galician, and edited the »Revista Galega de Educación« as well as »Fadamorgana«, a magazine dedicated to children’s and young adults’ literature.

His texts, often set in the rural environments of Galicia and which deal with the traditional roots of these areas, are rich in atmospheric, permitting his young readers to delve directly into the plot. In doing so, an intensive examination of the oral narrative traditions of his homeland gets imbued in Docampo’s work. »What matters most to me is language itself, to recover the word, to have the oral form function ›as if listening to something‹.« Ever more the author explores the limits of human reason, as his characters are confronted with inexplicable events. Docampo shapes his stories with cinematographic zest, and lets them shift indeterminably between dream, magic and reality. Among his most well-known works is the award-winning collection of horror stories »Cando petan na porta pola noite« (1994; t: Knocks on the door at night), a homage to the great storytellers of his homeland. The horror here arises not from ostensibly surprising effects, but rather through the meticulously described nightmarish atmosphere. The protagonists get drawn into situations which they do not understand and over which they have no power: one man encounters his doppelganger, another has his death announced on his birthday each year, through letters of condolence.

Xabier Puente Docampo has been honoured with numerous prizes, among them the Premio Feira do Libro de A Coruña (1989) for the complete narrative works of a Galician author. »Cando petan na porta pola noite« was awarded the Premio Rañolas (1994) and the Premio Nacional de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil (1995). Two of his books have been included in the White Ravens Catalogue of the International Youth Library in Munich, one of them the illustrated book »Bolboretas« (2004; t: Butterflies), which tells, through poetic pictures, about falling in love. Docampo has a grown up son and lives with his wife in A Coruña.

© international literature festival berlin

O misterio das badaladas
Vía Láctea
A Coruña, 1986

A chave das noces
Vía Láctea
A Coruña, 1987

O armario novo de Rubén
Xerais
Vigo, 1989
Xan López Domínguez

A nena de auga e o príncipe de lume
Xerais
Vigo, 1989
Ill: Xosé Cobas

O país durminte
Xerais
Vigo, 1992
Ill: Xosé Cobas

Cando petan na porta pola noite
Xerais
Vigo, 1994
Ill: Fran Jaraba

Adelaida, Henrique e demais familia
Galaxia
Vigo, 1996
Ill: Xosé Cobas

O habanero / Marmelada de amoras
Fundación Caixa Galicia
Santiago de Compostela, 1997
Ill: Sergio Casas Castaño

O pazo baleiro
Anaya Infantil y Juvenil
Vigo, 1997
Ill: Xosé Cobas

O Pazo Baleiro
Anaya Infantil y Juvenil
Vigo, 1997
Ill: Xosé Cobas

Breogán
A Nosa Terra
Vigo, 1998
Ill: Pepe Carreiro

¡Estampado!
Xunta
Santiago de Compostela, 1998
Ill: Fran Jaraba

O home que inventou unha maneira de andar
Galaxia
Vigo, 1998
Ill: Xosé Cobas

A viaxe de Purpurina ou a historia dunha pinga de auga
Xunta
Santiago de Compostela, 1999
Ill: Xosé Cobas

Catro cartas
Anaya
Madrid, 2000
Ill: Fino Lorenzo

Nube de neve
Everest Galicia
A Coruña, 2000
Ill: Xosé Cobas

Os ollos de Ramón
Galaxia
Vigo, 2001
Ill: Xosé Cobas

Un conto de tres noites
Xerais
Vigo, 2001
Ill: Xosé Cobas

¿Víchela, víchela?
Casals
Barcelona, 2001
Ill: Xosé Cobas

A casa da luz
Xerais
Vigo, 2002
Ill: Xosé Cobas

Bolboretas
Everest Galicia
A Coruña, 2004
Ill: Xosé Cobas

A decisión de Valerio
Xerais
Vigo, 2005
Ill: Xosé Cobas

De cores e de amores
Galaxia
Vigo, 2005
Ill: Xosé Cobas

Hoy vas a entrar en mi pasado
A Fortiori
Bilbao, 2006
Ill: Xosé Cobas

Übersetzer: Ilsa Layer