"Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another." - Ernest Hemingway
Alfonso Mora Almenara was a man of contradictions: born in Barcelona but raised from infancy in the shadows of a Madrid attic; a boy who dreamed of the bullring but found himself in the crosshairs of a brutal Civil War; a sailor who ran contraband through the ports of postwar Europe and risked everything in the illegal, high-stakes transportation of Jewish refugees to the fledgling state of Israel; and an immigrant who stepped onto the docks of Sydney's Woolloomooloo with nothing but a canvas bag and a storyteller's gumption.
A Man Adrift is a raw and honest account of a life lived at full volume. Written in his second language and restored affectionately by his son, this is the story of a man who spent his life chasing freedom, often at the expense of those he love. It is the story the long, winding road that led him from the rooftops of old Madrid's literary quarter to the hard-won fibro suburbs of Sydney's West.
A Heritage of Blood and ShadowsThough Alfonso's life began in Barcelona, he was the heir to a family history steeped in the romantic and intense traditions of C�rdoba. It was a world of his grandparents' making, an era of photographers and aristocrats where duels were fought at dawn and secrets were taken to the grave. But for Alfonso, that world was a distant echo. Carried to Madrid as a baby, he grew up in the Barrio de las Letras-the Literary Quarter-where during the Civil War the air smelled of bread and gunpowder. In those narrow lanes once walked by Cervantes and Lorca he learned the first rule of survival: keep your head down and your eyes open.
The Years of DriftWhen the Spanish Civil War tore his homeland apart, Alfonso was swept up in its current. At sixteen, he was fighting with the Free French, beginning a decade of displacement. As a merchant seaman, he navigated the "Years of Drift" through Marseille, Casablanca, and Tangier. Trading in shadows, working for London gangsters, and running contraband through a broken continent, he lived by a code of survival that left no room for the faint of heart.
Building the Australian Dream in Fibro and SweatIn 1951, fate brought him to Australia. The adventure changed, moving from the boarding houses of Woolloomooloo to the developing frontier of Seven Hills. Alfonso became part of the generation that built modern Sydney.
This is a story of the Australian working class where men worked the docks and factories day and night. It captures the reality of the "fibro" suburbs: back-breaking labour, struggles to pay a mortgage on a workman's wage, and the quiet desperation of lotteries and soccer pools, hoping for a win that would finally bridge the gap between two hemispheres and a divided family.
A Legacy RestoredAlfonso was reckless, selfish, and sometimes dishonest; he was also generous, funny, and kind. For him the truth should never interfere with a good story, and here, fact and fancy sit plainly together. Edited by his son, this memoir preserves the voice of an uneducated man with a "storyteller's instinct." It salutes the contradictions that define us all, and the defiance, joy, and quiet regrets of a man who was always, in some way, still at sea.
A Man Adrift is essential reading for anyone interested in:
The Spanish Civil War and the exile experience.
Post-war Sydney history and the Western Suburbs.
The "Golden Age" of the Merchant Marine and smuggling.
The complex, emotional bonds between fathers and sons.
Order your copy of A Man Adrift today and step into the extraordinary journey of Alfonso Mora Almenara.
