The story follows the Odisto family and their journey across a shifting, disintegrating Iberian geography. By blending historical fact with the fantastical—such as blood raining from the sky or shadows that detach from their owners—Uclés creates a "total novel" that addresses the trauma of the war without relying solely on traditional realism. Key Themes and Features
David Uclés (Úbeda, 1990), a polymath who is also a musician, illustrator, and translator.
The story's prologue eerily foreshadows this. Set in the French Alps in March 1944, an Andalusian militiaman, tormented by wartime nightmares, asks his comrades to inscribe his father's name—Odisto Ardolento—on his grave, a plea for remembrance that takes on a tragic dimension with his imminent death. The narrative then rewinds to a peaceful but strangely portentous spring in Andalusia. Odisto, a farmer, awaits the birth of his eighth child, unaware that the war will soon tear everything apart.
Uclés ha observado cómo novelas, poemas y crónicas de viajes han anticipado durante décadas el drama demográfico actual. Autores como Julio Llamazares ( Luna de lobos ), Jesús Carrasco ( Intemperie ) o Sergio del Molino ( La España vacía ) son sus puntos de apoyo. Pero Uclés no se queda en la crítica. Su trabajo compilatorio, que muchos buscan bajo el nombre La península de las casas vacías , propone un ejercicio de simbiosis: leer la despoblación como si se tratara de un texto, y la literatura como si fuera un censo de ausencias.