In this evocative retracing of a childhood long-gone, leading to his family's migration from Spain to Australia when he was 10 years old, Ivan Ca adas Fraile gives voice to the child he once was. In part, an unflinchingly candid confession-sometimes humorous, sometimes troublingly enigmatic-Portrait of an Innocent brings together personal experiences, often universal but also vividly particular. Memorable events of those years-as well as stories of the past, and the author's commentary-provide further insight into that place and time, childhood years from the mid-1970s to the early '80s which coincided with the end of the Franco dictatorship and Spain's transition to democracy.

Personal insights into how one child learned about the world, and early impressions of family and community, and of competing narratives of the past, coalesce into a declaration of the roles of reading and of the discovery of narrative. Reminiscences-whether fondly treasured or rued-show us who we are and who we might become. Yet, one lesson to draw from Portrait of an Innocent-as personal memoir and as creative act-is that to expect simple clarity or glib truths is to defy and deny the fragmentary and incoherent essence of individual memory and human history-and, ultimately, of life itself.