Biography
Xabier P. DoCampo is one of Galicia’s most distinguished writers. As a schoolteacher, he was heavily involved in movements of educational reform in Galicia. He also contributed greatly, in libraries and other settings, to the promotion of reading. He worked as an actor and scriptwriter. But he is best known for his works of fiction aimed at younger readers, of which there are more than thirty. These have been included in the IBBY Honour List and the White Ravens Catalogue. In 1995 he won the Spanish National Book Award with the story collection When There’s a Knock on the Door in the Night. His novel The Book of Imaginary Journeys, illustrated by Xosé Cobas, takes its inspiration from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. He died in 2018.
Synopsis
The Book of Imaginary Journeys (224 pages) comprises two travel journals written by a certain X.B.R., in the first of which the Traveller describes the cities and kingdoms he visits. This makes up thirty short texts. The second journal contains notes and drawings the Traveller jots down along the way, together with more intimate reflections. These drawings and reflections are interspersed between the more descriptive texts. The book is inspired by Italo Calvino’s novel Invisible Cities.
Sample
All journeys are a return. Any traveller returns home the moment he sets foot outside the house. He has to come back in order to say what has happened, to turn the journey into a story.
For this reason, the paths the Traveller undertakes are tracks that lead to the knowledge and apprehension of beauty, which has so often to be rescued from the midst of misery and evil. Travelling means going to meet something the contemplation of which moves us, and before which we abandon all desire for possession, because the enjoyment resides in receiving that something for free.
Portico of Galician Literature 