Antagony

This potent drama, a collected volume of Goytisolo's famed tetralogy following a Catalan family, is widely regarded as one of the most profound inquiries ever undertaken on literary creation.

Antagony surveys the social history of Barcelona and Catalonia, primarily since the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939. The work, originally published as a tetralogy and now collected into one volume, follows the youth and education of Raúl Ferrer Gaminde, son of a well-connected, middle-class Catalan family that embraces Franco and Spanish Nationalism. Its potent drama plays out through Goytisolo’s crisp, forceful presentation of youth, humor, optimism, rebellion, violence, sexual awakening, indulgence, punishment, and the realization of one’s artistic vocation. Alternately modern and historical, Antagony displays intelligent realism, emotional gravity, profane beauty, brute vulgarity, sweeping rhetorical scope, and seamless transitions through long, streaming passages of narrative and introspection.

Luis Goytisolo is a Spanish writer, born in 1935. He is widely known for his tetralogy Antagonía, which was published between 1973 and 1981. He is a member of the Real Academia Española and has won many awards and distinctions in his native Spain.

Brendan Riley has translated a variety of genres including short fiction, novels, literary studies, religious reflections, poetry, and travel writing. His translations include Carlos Fuentes (The Great Latin American Novel); Luis Goytisolo (Antagony), Álvaro Enrigue (Hypothermia); Juan Filloy (Caterva); and Carmen Grau (Sunrise in Southeast Asia).