''Mararía'' (1973) is the most famous novel by the Spanish Canarian writer

Rafael Arozarena Rafael Arozarena (April 4, 1923 – September 30, 2009) was a Spanish poet and novelist, born in Tenerife, Canary Islands. He studied medicine and after that he started writing books, because writing was what he liked the most and what he usually ...

. Published in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

by Noguer in 1973, it was subsequently turned into a successful film in 1998. ''Mararía'' is considered a classic work of Canarian literature.

Plot summary

A traveler goes to the village of

Femés Yaiza is a municipality on the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain. It lies in the southwest of the island and forms part of the province of Las Palmas. The municipality is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, south and east. ...

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the i ...

. There he takes an interest in Maria, called "Mararía" by the villagers, who walks in the shadows at night. The inhabitants tell him stories about her; it seems everyone has been entrapped by her in the past. All of her relationships ended badly, and she was held to be responsible. Now she is an old woman who walks in the dark and endures barking dogs and people's comments. She is presented as a symbol of purification and self-destruction. 1973 novels 20th-century Spanish novels Spanish novels adapted into films Novels set in Spain Lanzarote in fiction {{1970s-novel-stub