Translation Rights TQE / All the devil has taken

Paco Castañón, a comic book seller and collector, becomes interested in a set of comics sold through the internet and this leads him to Brussels. As it turns out, the illustrator was an exiled teacher who worked with the Misiones Pedagógicas (pedagogical missionaries) during the Second Spanish Republic in Spain. These volunteers traveled throughout the regions of Spain with bookmobiles and presented theatre performances and films. Before he can stop himself, Castañón begins to look into the story of these pioneers, full of ideals, who clashed with the inhabitants of a brutal land, until violence finally exploded.

A brilliant recreation of popular culture in Spain during the Second Republic – with its stories, comic books, novels in installments, jazz bands-, a narration of hilarious dialogues, where real characters get mixed up with fictional ones, a series of stories from the oral tradition that clash with high culture. An extraordinarily original novel, a burst of humor, emotion and exceptional virtuosity in current narrative that also pays homage to European comic culture and to the city of Brussels.

Praise for his previous novel, Los príncipes valientes:

 “An intense and moving novel… happy and sad at the same time; nostalgic, cruel, ironic, intelligent, and capping it all, written with unmatched skill.” Fernando Royuela

 “An exciting literary jewel.” El Periódico

 “An extraordinarily mature and profoundly vital first novel.”

Culturas (La Vanguardia)

 “A beautiful book that should not be overlooked. Unpredictable and, despite what it may seem, demythologizing.” La tormenta en un vaso de agua

 “This unusual and magnificent first novel should be vigorously recommended.”

El Cultural de El Mundo

 “A wonderful novel. Upon reading the last pages, I was able to get rid of the knot in my throat, and I thought of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.” La Vanguardia

Javier Pérez Andújar (Sant Adrià de Besòs, Barcelona, 1965) studied Spanish Philology in the University of Barcelona and is the author of Catalanes todos (All Catalans), Las 15 visitas de Franco a Cataluña (Franco’s 15 Visits to Catalonia), and Salvador Dalí. A la conquista de lo Irracional (Salvador Dalí. The Conquest of the Irrational). He has published, as the editor and anthologist, a book of short horror stories Vosotros los que leéis aún estáis entre los vivos (You Who Read Are Still Among the Living), and has translated into Spanish the comic book Astérix El cielo se nos cae encima (Asterix, the Sky Is Falling Down Upon Us). He was editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Taifa for some time, founder of the fanzine Flandis Mandis, and a columnist in Mondo Brutto. As a journalist, he has collaborated with Ajoblanco, Rock de Lux and Primera Línea, among other publications, as well as with the radio stations Ona Catalana and Radio Nacional de España (Ràdio 4), and on the literary TV program Saló de Lectura. He is currently a collaborator of El País and of L’Hora del Lector, a literary program on Catalan television.