Robinson Crusoe

This book, an indisputable classic of children’s and young adult literature, is also one of the least known works of all time. In fact, few people have read the original text, and yet everyone is familiar with at least one of the multiple condensed or adapted versions of this classic. Of all the mutilated editions, this one by Media Vaca has gone the farthest, since it has no words at all. It is also the first work IN FULL COLOUR by the publishing house, whose books, in addition to their craftsmanship, have always been characterised by the use of bichromy.

“The transmutation of a narrative text into images is always a challenge. Especially, if the former text happens to be one of the most famous stories in universal literature. The only valid processes to achieve a successful transit of language are synthesis, suggestion, and connotation: Ajubel has used these concepts to give us his delicate version of Robinson Crusoe, and, graphic beauty aside, he offer us the opportunity to read the essences of the text: the price of dreams, the helplessness of solitude, the angst of the return, themes as old as literature itself.

Through seventy-seven drawings, the illustrator has created a story that closes upon itself, like a snake biting its tail, but aware that its tail is not the same it once knew: the twist is an exercise of experience reminiscent of another poet: ‘we, who we were then, are no longer the same’. We will never be”. Leonardo Padura