Novel
La saga/fuga de J. B.
Not translated into English
Gonzalo Torrente Ballester · 1972
Synopsis
Castroforte del Baralla, a town in Galicia that appears on no map and that, when its inhabitants all grow enthusiastic or anxious together, rises above its foundations. From century to century, it has been threatened with destruction, and each time a man with the initials J. B. has saved it, against the rival town, Villasanta de la Estrella. When the relic of the Holy Body disappears, José Bastida, an unemployed grammar teacher, finds himself caught up by the legend, and the chronicle of the town merges with that of all the J. B.s who preceded him.
Context
Begun in Albany under another title and finished in 1971, the book was published by Destino in April 1972 and at once won two awards. It is built like a fugue, and its hero, a secondary character who becomes central through his own imagination, comes from Don Quixote. The imaginary city owes much to Pontevedra, where the author had taught, and a little to a dreamed Paris. Metafiction and the literary theory he had learned in the United States renew the novel there. Claude Bleton translated it into French in 1991, under the Spanish title.
Who it is for
A sweeping novel, with multiple voices and full of learned games; one must let oneself be carried along by the recurring motifs.
Prizes and reception
Critics' Prize and Ciudad de Barcelona Prize in 1972; José Saramago wrote the preface to the French translation.