Field of Honour - Tapa dura

"Not only indispensable reading for anyone who wants to fathom the psychological origins of the Spanish Civil War, it is indisputably the most impressive work of literary art among the host of novels produced by the war."--Gerald Griffiths Brown, author of A Literary History of Spain

A contemporary of Lorca and Bu uel in Spain's Second Republic, Max Aub escaped into a life of exile after General Franco seized Barcelona. His masterpiece, acknowledged in Spain as one of the best accounts of the Spanish Civil War, is the five-novel cycle known as The Magic Labyrinth--never before translated into English. A playwright as well as a novelist, he brings the period alive through vibrant dialogue and a story that navigates the factional intrigues that eventually erupted onto the streets in violence. The protagonist of the first novel is Rafael L pez Serrador, whose coming of age in Barcelona introduces a cast from all walks of city life--Catalan nationalists, anarchists, Falangists, government ministers and showgirls. Just as central a character is Barcelona itself, lovingly depicted. Rafael's adventures bring him into contact with the forces that were to destroy the Republic and determine the bloody course of the Spanish Civil War. Masterfully translated by Gerald Martin, author of Gabriel Garc a M rquez: A Life, Max Aub's novel is set to introduce to an English-speaking audience a classic of Spanish and Latin American literature--an account of the Spanish Civil War to compare with Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.