This is a special publication to mark the 25th anniversary of the famous novel. Among other innovations, they added a writer's back note. The novel is a portrait of today´s society. Zubizarreta, particularly, focuses at portraying the journeys of young migrants. He exposes their human side and he uses the adventure stories style plenty of adrenaline and excitement.
The story is set in the 1990s. Selim lives in a small village in the Atlas mountains. He wants to go to France as his older brother did a while ago. But Selim doesn´t know much, he doesn´t know much even about his brother, only just a few half words that he manages to get from a fellow who comes to visit the village once a year. He knows a little more about the way, because news about it are spreading all around: first arriving in Marrakech, then crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and all the Spain, and finally reach the France of his dreams...
Selim himself gives us these explanations in the first part of the book, as he is the chronicler of his trip, the chronicler of his own experiences. What we know is what Selim himself tells us, what he experiences, thinks, and feels inside.
The second part jumps in every way. The narrative takes us into another time, place and voice. We are in Vitoria-Gasteiz now. We lost Selim's voice, and Esther came to us. Her voice seems coming from diary where she is in a conversation directed to Selim, a very close and exciting conversation indeed. It is not a direct but indirect chronicle of the journey. At this point, the force is placed on the reality of migrants, as much as in personal relationships, showing that global and personal phenomena are two views of the same thing.
The third and final section is the shortest: Ttipi-ttapa magazine, a pseudo-interview with a person who has crossed the border. It shows the features of fake documentaries. By now the reader will be impressed and Zubizarreta takes the opportunity to give the last piece of information.