The little rat that could

Sam Savage's Firmin (previously celebrated by The Litblog Co-op) has been translated into Spanish (and twelve other languages) to critical acclaim. This morning, El Tiempo posted the laudatory article, "The novel 'Firmin,' a rat's passion for reading, has become a complete publishing phenomenon." It says that in Spain alone, over 50,000 copies of the book have been published and it is currently in its eighth edition.

The article contains a lovely little book trailer that has clips of writers such as Rodrigo Fresán praising the story, as well as showing Chilean illustrator Fernando Krahn's other drawings of Firmin. There is also a PDF of the first chapter (in Spanish) and an audio interview with Seix Barral editorial director Elena Ramírez, who says that this is the first time that a publisher in Spain has acquired the global rights (for all translations) of a book whose original language is not Spanish.

Other writers also comment on their love for this book:

Para el escritor colombiano Mario Mendoza, esta "es una novela donde se muestra el desarrollo de la conciencia a lo largo de un proceso de lectura. No leemos para acumular cultura, sino porque los libros nos permiten ver pliegues y matices en la realidad que enfrentamos todos los días. Firmin es eso: una apología de la riqueza y la multiplicidad que sólo nos puede otorgar el lenguaje".

A su turno, la escritora española Rosa Montero la define como una "aguda fábula sobre la condición humana. Un disparo al corazón".

Un personaje que como lo comenta en su crítica sobre el libro Javier Aparicio Maydeu, en el suplemento cultural Babelia del diario español El País, "conmueve para siempre con sus lecciones de humanidad, sentido del humor y aguda sátira de nuestro loco mundo, nos empuja a leer aún más y nos impide volver a gritar ¡malditos roedores!".

Elsewhere in today's edition, Bogotá inaugurates six new libraries at six stops on the city's metro line, part of a new literacy initiative.