The Little Chess Horse

Por Joaquim Oller Riera

The little chess horse that didn't want war.

The little chess horse was tired of the killing that occurred among the pieces in the daily chess games. One day, during their customary game of chess, a grandfather, who had been sent to war at the age of seventeen, in the so-called «Baby Bottle call up», explained to his son how he managed to escape a terrible battle and return home. The little white horse listened very carefully to the account of the desertion and took advantage of a day when the chips fell to the ground, escaping with the little black pawn.

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: Caligrama
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 30 nov 2019
• ISBN: 9788417984939

Joaquim Oller Riera

Joaquim Oller Riera, nacido en Barcelona, es historiador y economista. Autor de artículos sobre historia, arte y economía. Aficionado a viajar, con poco equipaje, en busca de la historia, arte y la conversación con la gente.

Vista previa del libro

The Little Chess Horse

First edition: 2019

ISBN: 9788418018046

ISBN eBook: 9788417984939

Registration on the Intelelectual Property: B-1229-19

© original Text Author:

Joaquim Oller

© de las ilustraciones del interior:

Mercè Armengol Tatjè

Shutterstock

Pixabay

© for this present Edition’s design:

Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial

CALIGRAMA, 2019

www.caligramaeditorial.com

[e-mail]

© for this cover design:

Shutterstock

Printed in Spain

No part of this book may be reproduced, without the prior written permission of the author, and its incorporation into a computer system, its transmission in any form or by any means, electronic —including public communication or privately via the Internet or any other similar network— mechanical, photocopying, recording or other methods, including explicitly audiovisual, and / or any other medium created or to be created.

Dedicated to my parents,

who forbade my brothers and me

from playing with toys shaped

like guns when we were children.

My father has never been able to forget

that he was sent, untrained, to the front line

of the Battle of the Ebro at the age of seventeen;

it was there where he became acquainted

with the tragedy of war, having to defect to survive.

My father and I would also like

to dedicate this book to all pacifists.

Prologue

Unfortunately, at the age of seventeen, I experienced the tragedy of war. I was sent, with little training, to the front line of the Battle of the Ebro, the cruellest battle of the Spanish Civil War. We were born in 1920, seventeen- and eighteen-year-old children; many died during the battle. I was a very thin boy, who liked to play with Meccano and do magic tricks. I didn’t want to go to war; they forced me.

I survived because I managed to defect from the hospital where I was admitted, on the verge of death. As a testament to those events, I have kept my drawings, letters, and documents from that damn war in which so many barbarities were committed on both sides.

I want to thank all those who have also written, sung, painted, or drawn against war.

Joaquim Oller Viladrosa,

Quinta del Biberón (Baby Bottle call up)

of the Battle of the Ebro

(31st Brigade, 123rd Battalion,

Transmissions section,

E. T. No. 3, Turia Base No. 15,

Army Corps No. 46)

23 May 2019

Presentation