Written by Spanish journalist Nacho Carretero and originally released in Spain as Fariña - Galician for “flour”, a euphemism for cocaine - Snow on the Atlantic is the rare book whose title improves upon translation. For the most part, the prose and subject matter translate with equal seamlessness into English.
The book’s opening sequences are particularly engaging. Humming along like an explanatory voiceover from a Martin Scorsese film, Carretero offers readers a lively exposition on the origins of Galicia’s maritime black market. For centuries, Galicians benefitted from - and according to local legend, even engineered - the shipwrecks of valuable cargos, helping themselves to the remains.
As he describes the so-called Coast of Death and the fear it came to inspire around Europe, Galicia takes shape in the mind’s eye as an ideally spooky and anarchic backdrop for a story about outlaws.
