Rubén Gallego

Who is Rubén Gallego?

Rubén David González Gallego was born in Moscow, Russia, with severe cerebral palsy.

Gallego was separated from his family at the age of one; he was sent to a state orphanage, because his grandfather, Ignacio Gallego, a Spanish Communist politician, was ashamed of him and told his daughter Aurora Gallego Rodríguez that her son had died.

Born without the use of his hands and feet, Ruben Gallego was tenacious and survived to adulthood, eventually marrying and having children. He lived in Russia and worked as a computer specialist until 2001, when he was reunited with his mother in Prague. Gallego lived in Freiburg, Germany, later moved to the United States. He now resides in Washington DC.

His memoir about his dreadful childhood in different Soviet orphanages, which won the Russian Booker Prize, was translated into English and published, in January 2006, as White on Black: A Boy's Story. An abridged version of the memoir was read on the Book of the Week programme on BBC Radio 4 in the week of March 20–24, 2006.

The book has also been translated into French, Vietnamese, Swedish, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Georgian, and Esperanto.