Winner of the Sant Joan Prize 2005
Ventura Mir is a castaway but, unlike Robinson Crusoe, he is not surrounded by the sea; he is surrounded by the mountains of the Catalan Pyrenees. He does not wish to be rescued but he is very aware of what is going on around him, even more so than the inhabitants of the small village nearby. The story of this peculiar man, somewhat of a voyeur/outlaw, and the reactions against somebody that wishes to be left alone, is the theme behind this novel, winner of one of the most prestigious Catalan language literary prizes. The protagonist of this historical novel set in 1837 is a student who suffers a big professional and family crisis, after which he decides to shelter in the Pyrenees. He ends up on an alpine terrace, a strip of land covered in vegetation adjacent to the highest cliffs, only accessible to birds and rock-climbers, from which he will have to defend himself from all those people that try to rescue him, ‘for his own good’. Not only from his family, his fellow students or the love of his life, but also from all those ideologies that do not tolerate a solitary being.
Published by Edicions 62 (in Catalan), 2006 |
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