Combarro Waterfront

PORTO LÚA 

DAVID GREEN


atmosphere press

Publication Date: February 21, 2023

Porto Lúa, which was preregistered with the US Copyright Office in 2018 and published in February of 2023,  has no relationship with the episode of Paramount's Los Enviados titled "El oráculo de Porto da Lúa" that first appeared in December of 2023.

Porto Lúa, que fue prerregistrado en la Oficina de Derechos de Autor de EE. UU. en 2018 y publicado en febrero de 2023, no tiene relación con el episodio de Los Enviados de Paramount titulado "El oráculo de Porto da Lúa" que apareció por primera vez en diciembre de 2023.

Porto Lúa is a coming-of-age story set on the Spanish Coast of Death in the Celtic region of Galicia during the latter half of the twentieth century when the beliefs of an ancient past had not yet disappeared from country life, and people were still “living in a time before the disenchantment of the world, still engaging the mysteries of nature, of life and death, creatively without the explanations of modern science.” Like Carlo Levi’s Gagliano and Cinema Paradiso’s Giancaldo, Porto Lúa is a world of its own, an ageless land of the imagination, existing in the narrator’s vivid memories of a rural past as he looks back from the perspective of modern urban life to a time of wonder and enchantment.

Porto Lúa es una historia sobre la mayoría de edad ambientada en la Costa de la Muerte española, en la región celta de Galicia, durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX, cuando las creencias de un pasado antiguo aún no habían desaparecido de la vida rural y la gente todavía “vivir en una época anterior al desencanto del mundo, aún abordando los misterios de la naturaleza, de la vida y la muerte, de manera creativa sin las explicaciones de la ciencia moderna”. Al igual que Gagliano de Carlo Levi y Giancaldo de Cinema Paradiso, Porto Lúa es un mundo en sí mismo, una tierra eterna de la imaginación, que existe en los vívidos recuerdos del narrador de un pasado rural cuando mira hacia atrás desde la perspectiva de la vida urbana moderna a una época de maravilla y encanto.

In Porto Lúa Green demonstrates his extensive knowledge of, and deep appreciation for, the traditional culture and history of Galicia. He has spent countless hours in the mountains and villages of the region learning its customs and stories to offer a book that returns to a former time through an imaginative journey of discovery.

 

Fernando Alonso Romero, Author of O Camiño de Fisterra

Porto Lúa is a contemporary classic creating a magical world reminiscent of García Márquez’s Macondo. This is the work of a master storyteller at the height of his power. Sensitivity to sound and form in every phrase of this book as well as its vivid descriptions of the Spanish countryside give it a poetic quality rare in novels of this length. Porto Lúa is a work that must be read slowly to achieve the full effect of the power of its language.

 

Sassan Tabatabai, Translator of Blind Owl



Boston-based writer, teacher and world traveler David Green has written a tour de force set in the Celtic region of Galicia during the latter half of the 20th century.


Travel & Culture

Praise for The Garden of Love and Other Stories:

 

“Green is an informed, intelligent, refined writer.” Keith Botsford, News from the Republic of Letters

 

“The intensely imagined dreamscapes are fresh and beautifully written.” Michael Coffey, author of 87 North

Praise for Atchley:

 

“A work of singular lyrical intensity and haunting beauty.” Charles Stein

 

“Deceptively beautiful . . . a lushly written story of a shipwrecked man in a Spain of the imagination . . . Great intellectual fun.” Library Journal

Locations in Galicia, Spain that provided the inspiration for the places of Porto Lúa.

Monte Pindo

Monte Pindo from Lira 

Carnota and Monte Pindo

Ézaro

Port at Camelle

A plaza in Combarro

A street in Combarro

Visigothic tombstone in a wall in Santiago

Santa María de Oia

Plowing with an ox near Castro de Baroña in 1980 

Illa de San Martiño

Canón do río Xallas near the waterfall at Ézaro

The village of O Fieiro on the northeastern side of Monte Pindo in 1982

White rags on a tree at Capela de San Xoán do Carballoso, Xallas. 

The museum of Manfred Gnädinger of Camelle


A wall at the museum of Manfred Gnädinger of Camelle


Church at Santa Baia, 2002

Trachelium Caeruleum

Boca do Inferno

Roman altar in the wall of the chapel at San Angelo

Fervenza de Santa Locaia, 2002

White Dunes at Trece

Celtic Village on Santa Trega

Abandoned house and barn at San Cibrán, 2011


Path in the gardens at Pazo de Oca

Rúa Nova at night, Santiago

Evening light over Monte Pindo and Fisterra


Casaxoana on Monte Pindo

Monte Pindo

Altar site on Penafiel with carved footholds


Ancient stone road on Monte Pindo

Approach to Casaxoana on Monte Pindo

Oxcart and granary

The Art of Porto Lúa

Giotto's Trial by Fire of St. Francis of Assisi before the Sultan of Egypt

Statue of  Mendez Nuñez in the alameda at Santiago

Roman Funeral Stele from Mazarelos Oza dos Ríos

Roman Altar Stele to Berobreo, Monte do Facho, Donón

Dragon at the Monastery of San Paio de Antealtares

Roman Altar in Vilanova

Gallaecia Regnum Gerard Mercator 1610

"As you see me, you will see yourself. As you see yourself, I saw myself." Igrexa de San Frutuoso, Santiago


Statue of Santiago

Carved fountain, Santiago

Statue of San Lorenzo in the Church of San Estevo de Abelleira

The Music of Porto Lúa

Harry's Song

Alessandro Marcello - Concerto in D Minor for Oboe, Strings, and Continuo played on the Trumpet by Matthias Höfs

Mestre's Song

“Perché a lo sdegno” from Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo

The Author

David Green on Monte Pindo

David Green with the historian Luis Monteagudo García

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