Biography
Camilo Gonsar is one of the outstanding Galician writers of the second half of the twentieth century, a member of the New Galician Narrative movement of this time. He is the author of four novels, the most famous of which is Towards Times Square (1980) about a character who walks around New York City at night. He was also an exceptional storyteller, and his short stories – published as Far from Us and Inside (1961), Cement and Other Scenes (1994) and Around the No (1995) – were later brought together in a volume entitled Collected Stories 1961-1995. The author lived in London and New York, where he taught at Syracuse University, and was for a long time a teacher of philosophy at secondary schools in Galicia and Barcelona. He died in 2008 at the age of 77.
Synopsis
As well as publishing four novels, the most famous of which are Towards Times Square (1980) and Disaster (1983), Camilo Gonsar was admired for his skill at writing stories. He published three books of stories in his lifetime: Far from Us and Inside (1961), Cement and Other Scenes (1994) and Around the No (1995). These have been brought together in a volume entitled Collected Stories 1961-1995 (264 pages), which was published in the year 2008 by Editorial Galaxia, shortly before the author died.
Sample
He had missed the last bus. But he accepted this contretemps with indifference, as if he couldn’t quite take it seriously, and the prospect of a distance of many kilometres didn’t discourage him, but struck him as appealing. At the bus stop, so superfluous by now, he gazed at one and the other side of the road. Then he continued on his way.
It was snowing. It hadn’t stopped raining all afternoon, but now it was snow that was falling, the first snow of winter. But he wasn’t cold. He was wearing a coat and had pulled up the collar to prevent, as far as possible, the icy snow reaching his body, slipping down the collar of his shirt.
Portico of Galician Literature 