Panther S. Series

The theme of non-communication in human relationships in a world saturated with information is the connecting thread in this collection of stories. The mystery of light in Vermeer's famous painting inspires a writer; a travelling lingerie salesman is helped by a rock musician as he waits for his runaway son; an emigrant describes his experiences in Havana to his nephew; a thief, killed while robbing a bank, recounts his love story.

Non-communication in a world saturated with information is the connecting theme in this lively collection of stories by the author of The Carpenter's Pencil. The everyday lives of Rivas's unforgettable characters may be desperate and harsh, filled with pain and solitude, but humour and tenderness always redeem them. Vermeer's Milkmaid includes the three stories that comprise Butterfly's Tongue, upon which Jos- Luis Cuerda's acclaimed film of the same title is based.

Carpenter's Pencil

by Manuel Rivas

Published 26 January 2001

In a prison in the city of Santiago de Compostela, during the early months of 1936, an artist sketches the famous porch of the cathedral that is known as the P rtico da Gloria. He uses a carpenter's pencil. Instead of reproducing the faces of the prophets and elders on the sculptured portal, he replaces them with those of his Republican prison inmates. A prison warder, who is to be the sketcher's murderer, watches in fascination. Years later the warder recounts his memories of that time to a young prostitute and tells of how the artist and his carpenter's pencil continued to influence him. This deeply poetic and moving novel explores the tragedy of the civil war that engulfed Spain and so shook the rest of the world, as well as the memories of the men and women who survived. In the process it also tells an unforgettable love story.