Francisco Casavella

"Francisco Casavella’s literary legacy is guaranteed." The Times Literary Supplement

In Barcelona during Spain’s transition to democracy, the Raval district is up in arms, fighting for control of the streets. New waves of immigrants, junkies and mafias have turned it into a territory for survivors ruled by Gandhi and his ex-legionnaire friends. Boy, son of a missing singer of whom only past splendour remains, and his friends, Stick, Mole and Toast, dream of success to the rhythm of Catalan rumba. But when Boy discovers the reasons for his father’s disappearance, ignored by the outdated order imposed by the soldiers of the fatherland, he must choose between his desire for revenge and his eagerness to succeed. What might have been an initiation story for Boy and his friends becomes a dangerous coming-of-age tale in which they must choose between dreaming or sleeping, singing or dying. 

In his first novel (awarded the Tigre Juan Prize, adapted for the cinema by Mireia Ros in 2006, recovered by Anagrama and now transformed into a classic in this Cátedra edition), Casavella reinvents hero literature with an audacity and vitality that flees from boredom at all times. El Triunfo is a game of cards in which the die is already cast, the story of a time that has already changed. One generation is affirmed over the other, and youth can only survive by devouring the power and control of old age.