A patchwork of ideas, skillfully stitched together with the delicate thread of literature. Luiz Raul Machado brings together in these short stories, almost chronicles, all the dimensions and textures of white. Snow, plaster, paper, transparency, sand, ice, dirt, pearl, silver, enamel, crystal, ivory juxtapose and contrast in a contradictory embroidery of absences, memories, new beginnings, and joys. These stories are linked by the inherent contradiction of white: is it truly invisible? Or the sum of all colors? What is truth, lie, or mirror in the daily lives of these characters? The girl who breaks her favorite toy; the student capable of coloring a blank page with the whitest landscapes; the daughter who becomes the guardian of her father's oblivion. The white that marks, fades, and hurts gains contrast in these small excerpts from everyday life. In the transparency of love's end, in the despair of madness, in the smile that wounds, or even in the oblivion of death. Each of these small adventures holds within itself the possibilities of a rainbow. In its relentless color, it dissects differences and contextualizes feelings. But "The 17 Colors of White" encompasses much more than marble, cloud, lime, matte, and dryness. It conveys sensations and emotions that parade across white pages. Full of possibilities, loaded with words. Each one a fingerprint forever etched into this story. The author's finger, an indelible mark of his talent, imprinted in defiant black ink.
