Magadan

— Story by Álvaro Díaz
— Illustrations by Francisco de la Mora
— Published by FCE, 2025

Magadan is a collaboration between writer Álvaro Díaz, creator of 31 Minutos, and Francisco de la Mora. Published by FCE in 2025, this book is aimed at children of all ages – and at adults who still want to fulfill the dreams they had as children.

“Magadan is proudly useless. I’d say that, formally, it doesn’t make much sense, because at least in the text we never find out what happens with the catfish. Nor do we really know the characters’ motivations. It feels like the preparation for something – and the strangeness of that something. It doesn’t really have deeper meanings either. When it says the teacher runs away, it simply means the teacher runs away.

Fran’s drawings have a timeless quality. They’re descriptive but not realistic. They remind me a bit of Tintin’s landscapes, and especially of a book I had as a child called The Egg of Kamarazut, about the relationship between the inventor of a strange, egg-shaped car and his daughter."

Álvaro Díaz