Biography
An Alfaya has studied teacher training and criminology and helped found the Avento Theatre in Vigo as well as providing the voice for Betty Rubble in the Galician version of The Flintstones. She has written important works of fiction and young people’s literature, for which she has won numerous prizes. In the field of adult fiction, she has won the Magariños Award for I Killed a Man (2005), the popular San Clemente Award for Areaquente (2009), and the La Voz de Galicia Award for a novel in instalments for Secondary Road (2011). In the field of young people’s literature, her accolades include the Merlin Award for Merman, Merman! (1997), the Lazarillo Award for Barefoot Shadow (2006), also included in the White Ravens Catalogue and the IBBY Honour List, and the Caixa Galicia Foundation Award for Solitude Island (2007). She is one of the most prolific and successful writers in the Galician language.
Synopsis
Barefoot Shadow (144 pages) is perhaps An Alfaya’s best-known young adult novel. It was first published in Galician in 2006, having won the previous year’s Lazarillo Award for Literary Creation, an award given by OEPLI, the Spanish section of IBBY, and the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture.
Sample
It was no longer a time of hunger. Earlier, bread had been spread with pork fat, butter or bacon melted in the warmth of the hearth. Then came olive oil sprinkled with sugar on toasted slices. ‘A blessed glory!’ according to Amadora.
‘A blessed glory, that’s right!’ she would murmur while stirring the contents of the pot.
Portico of Galician Literature 