“Rather than dreaming our lives, we must try to give life to our dreams, to live our dreams” (An orange in the trash, on page 99). I wanted to bring this phrase because in addition to beautiful, it summarizes well the last novel by Patxi Zubizarreta, Laranja bat zaborrak (Elkar, 2015).

Coinciding with the title, as a paralytic initial text, we find a quote from the film Mr Ibrahim and the flowers of the Quran, which says that we have only to look at the stationery to know if we are in a poor or rich area.

As for dreams, oranges and trash, the protagonist of the novel will be Karabino, the connection element between the three. Only a person like her can dream of the luxury of finding an orange in the trash.

Zubizarreta brings us to the city of Mukattam, in Old Cairo, “a neighborhood like a nut broken in asphalt by a donkey” (page 9) or, what is the same, to the community of Coptic Christians known in Zabali, Karabino and his family. The Zabalin take care of the garbage of Cairo, as “what is the gift of God” (page 12) have only one source of survival. In this environment in which determination is authority – “We were born in Zabali and will die in excess” – and in which there is no hope – “we were born to be junk” – Carabino has a dream: Departure from Mukattame to New Cairo. Karabino laughs at him because he has a capacity that others don't have and sometimes they glue him because they consider him a dreamer. In the first part of the book, among other things, it is about the dreams he has had from his childhood to the present day. After one of his recurring dreams, he decides to move to the City of the Dead in Al-Qaraba, where he will meet Nagib, a storyteller who is blind.

This character, the eleventh son of Jacob, introduces the story of Joseph by uniting the novel with the oral tradition. At the end of each story by Nagib Itsua, the reader will find QR codes that will allow you, if you wish, to listen to the legends with voice viva.Una very recommendable experience.

The peculiarity of this novel is the hybridism between the connection and the arts of different traditions (written and oral). The writing of Zubizarreta, accompanied by the illustrations of Mintxo Cemillán, configures a very rich symbology that offers the world of Karabino's dreams with word and image.