Rubén David González Gallego (born 1968 in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

) is a Russian writer of Spanish ancestry. After being born with severe

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sensa ...

in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, Gallego was separated from his family at the age of one. He was sent to a state orphanage, because his grandfather, Ignacio Gallego, a Spanish Communist politician (General Secretary of the

Spanish Communist Party The Spanish Communist Party (in es, Partido Comunista Español), was the first communist party in Spain, formed out of the Federación de Juventudes Socialistas (Federation of Socialist Youth, youth wing of Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). Th ...

since 1984), was ashamed of his birth disorder. He later told his daughter, Aurora Gallego Rodríguez (Rubén's mother), that her son had died. Born without the use of his hands and feet, Gallego was tenacious and survived to adulthood, eventually marrying and having children. He lived in Russia and worked as a computer specialist until 2001, when he was reunited with his mother in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. Gallego lived in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, later moved to the United States. He now resides in Israel. His memoir, ', about his dreadful childhood in different Soviet orphanages won the

Russian Booker Prize The Russian Booker Prize (russian: Русский Букер, ''Russian Booker'') was a Russian literary award modeled after the Booker Prize. It was awarded from 1992 to 2017. It was inaugurated by English Chief Executive Sir Michael Harris C ...

. The book was translated into English and published, in January 2006, as ''White on Black: A Boy's Story''. An abridged version of the memoir was read on the Book of the Week programme on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

in the week of March 20–24, 2006. The book has also been translated into French (2002 by Aurora Gallego Rodríguez and Joëlle Roche-Parfenov, Actes Sud/Solin), Vietnamese, Swedish (2005 by Ola Wallin, Ersatz), Lithuanian (2005 by Andrius Šiuša), Polish (2005 by Katarzyna Maria Janowska, Wydawnictwo Znak), Finnish (2006 by Teemu Kaskinen, Sammakko), Icelandic (2007 by Helga Brekkan, JPV), Hebrew (2008 by S. Levin), Czech (2009 by Denisa Šťastná, Revolver Revue), Georgian (2009 by Nino Bekishvili), Esperanto (2010 by Kalle Kniivilä), Romanian (2019) by Liliana Radulescu and Nicoleta Silivestru, and Estonian (2020) by Valdek Kiiver.

External links

From victim to hero
– book review published in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' in January 2006. * * 1968 births Living people Spanish-language writers Russian expatriates in the United States Russian expatriates in Israel Russian people of Spanish descent Russian expatriates in Germany Writers from Moscow People with cerebral palsy Russian Booker Prize winners {{Russia-writer-stub