Two powerful families go head-to-head in Melcior Comes's most spectacular novel.
A fraudulent land purchase sets off a conflict between the Torrus family, owners of a predatory real estate agency in Barcelona, and the Súbac family, powerful Majorcan businessmen accustomed to taking what they want. The Torrus family is unwilling to give in, and instead start airing the Súbac family’s dirty laundry, which includes an unsolved murder from twenty years ago. In a style with touches of Fargo and Faulkner, this is a novel of children and parents, of changing loyalties, of failures, horses and boxers. It is a visceral tragedy with touches of black comedy told in multiple voices and in a range of narrative styles, all at the service of – perhaps illusory – investigation into personal and collective truths.
An exuberant novel that makes spectacular and masterful use of all the mechanisms of literary fiction.
Highly entertaining, hypnotic, brilliant, and extraordinarily versatile writing.