This is the story of a Spanish exile's return from Paris to his native Barcelona. The novel's narrator, like Barcelona during the Franco years (and the author) is fractured, conflicted and (he feels) implicated in tragedy. It's the first part in a trilogy by Goytisolo, a Catalan who wrote complex, difficult novels of Spain on the periphery of the Western and Islamic worlds. Originally published in 1969.  (SPN25, $15.00)

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