Vocile lui Pamano

Oriol Fontelles leaves a past that divides the village of Torena. It lies in the Catalan Pyrenees. He dies in 1944. A street then bears his name until Franco’s death. Some hail this Falangist as a hero. They say he fought left-wing partisans. The families of Falange victims hate him.

Close to sixty years later, teacher Tina Bros makes a chance find. She finds four notebooks in a school no longer in use. The school faces plans to tear it down. The books hold one long letter to Fontelles’s presumed daughter. He claims he fought with the partisans against Franco. Yet early in the third millennium, the Vatican beatifies him. The Church treats him as a martyr. It holds that communists killed him for his faith.

Jaume Cabré’s literary novel shows how tales of the past clash. It shifts between times and points of view. It traces love, hate and politics. It also asks how fear can give rise to courage. It suits readers drawn to fiction about history and moral doubt.

Cabré was born in 1947. He studied Catalan philology at Barcelona University. This is the study of language and written texts. He writes novels, essays and scripts for the screen. He has won awards from around the world. This edition forms part of the Anansi series. Jana Balacciu Matei translated it from Catalan. Its Catalan title is Les veus del Pamano.