La guerra perdida

by Jordi Soler

Por primera vez, Los rojos de ultramar , La última hora del último día y La fiesta del oso en un solo volumen Los rojos de ultramar , La última hora del último día y La fiesta del oso por primera vez reunidos en un solo volumen. Después de perder la guerra, Arcadi y su hermano Oriol emprenden la huida hacia Francia. Poco después, en medio de una terrible tormenta de nieve, Oriol desparece sin dejar rastro. Arcadi, en cambio, consigue escapar tras un accidentado periplo por el sur de Francia, con los espías de Franco pisándole los talones, y funda, junto con otros cuatro exiliados republicanos, una plantación de café en plena selva de Veracruz, en México. Rodeado de una vegetación exuberante y de toda clase de insectos estrafalarios, Arcadi alimenta la esperanza de recibir noticias del paradero de su hermano y de volver a España. Pero para volver a España es imprescindible que antes muera Franco. Poco a poco esa idea extravagante toma fuerza y se convierte en un plan para asesinarlo. Una colonia de republicanos en medio de la selva mexicana, una huida épica, el destino incierto de un soldado desaparecido durante la retirada, el infierno del campo de concentración francés, un complot para asesinar al general Franco y una fiesta multitudinaria y esperpéntica que esconde una verdad difícil de aceptar. En esta trilogía sobre la guerra perdida, la memoria y el exilio, Jordi Soler se asoma, con una prosa deslumbrante, al lado oscuro del alma humana.

544 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Esta es la única biografía oficial de Jordi Soler

Nació en 1963 en La Portuguesa, una comunidad de republicanos catalanes situada en la selva de Veracruz, en México. Desde Bocafloja, su primera novela, Jordi Soler se convirtió en una de las voces literarias más importantes de su generación. La Casa de las Culturas del Mundo (Haus der Kulturen der Welt) en Berlín, elaboró un perfil sobre su obra donde dice: “Más que cualquier otro de los escritores de su generación, Soler ha conseguido un estilo propio, altamente visual, en su prosa y su poesía”.

Durante diez años, de manera paralela a su trabajo de escritor, hizo programas de música y literatura en dos de las estaciones de radio más influyentes de México; luego fue diplomático en Irlanda y ahora vive en Barcelona, la ciudad que abandonó su familia después de la Guerra Civil, donde trabaja en su siguiente novela y en artículos que publica en diarios y revistas.

Es caballero de la irlandesa Orden del Finnegans.

Reviews

[NenaMounstro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jordi tiene una manera exquisita escribir

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lost war. The war is lost. We are lost. The war.

It’s never good to be on the losing side of a war. No matter how noble your cause, when it’s over it’s never a good thing to lose. Marti had two sons, Arcadi and Oriol when the civil war started in Spain. They were Catalans. They were republicans. They were losing the war. In the winter of 1939 Arcadi fled North to France, to escape persecution by Franco’s troops. The fascists were winning and the tide had changed. Argelès-sur-Mer, a charming French city on the Mediterranean. Today it is known as a beach resort, famous for its beaches. In fact in the tourist guide in 1948 they had some 4,000 visitors. Not bad since this was only a couple years after the war. It fails to mentioned that in 1939 some 100,000 Republican Spaniards occupied the beaches having fled Franco. It also fails to mention that a concentration camp was set up to house those exiles now prisoners. Nor does it mention that the Mexican ambassador to France Luís Rodríguez cut a deal with Philippe Pétain head of the Vichy government to send 1,000 Spaniards to Mexico, thus sparing them from being sent back to Franco’s Spain. Mexico will save you, France won’t. Arcadi was reunited with his wife and daughter, they travelled to Galatea, Mexico. In 1946, he cofounded with four other Catalan fleeing the war La Portuguesa, a coffee plantation colony in the heart of the Veracruz jungle. Coffee will save you. What about Spain? Franco? Surely the world will wake up and smell the roses. What if they don’t? Those five Catalans need to take things in their own hands. Let’s kill Franco, says one. Can we do it? says another. What do we have to lose? We are Los rojos de ultramar (2004). We already lost the war, says another. We tried but it ends badly. Time heals. In the summer of 1974 it’s La última hora del último día. (2007). It sounds better en Français, La dernière heure/ du dernier jour/ a la bonne heure/ a nos amours. Ah, a love song by Benjamin Biolay, c’est bon. Except it’s nothing good in that summer. The mayor of Galatea wants to get rid of our farm, he says those damn Catalans don’t fit in and they make trouble and they make too much money, we need to do something. There is a law Article 39 about getting rid of immigrants, let’s exile them. Wait. His daughter Marianne is blonde, beautiful and single, ooh la la. Yeah but she is mad, crazier than a loon, looney tunes. Send in the shaman, she will fix her, she will do her tricks, ay caramba que bonita, she does arouse the men folk. Wait, Franco is still alive. We need to do something, powerful, the blacks in our community have a witch doctor, so they say, can you believe in voodoo, pins and dolls, one to the head and one to the heart, that will do the trick. Yes it will but who is watching the daughter Marianne? Do you remember that Arcadi had a brother? He died a hero fighting the good fight? Is there such a thing as a good fight? Didn’t we lose the war? What was his name again? Oriol. Yes that is his name. Brave brave Oriol. He was a concert pianist wasn’t he, maybe he survived fled to South America, maybe Buenos Aires, making a career out of being, yes that is the story. Wait, maybe he died, dead, gone, or maybe he didn’t die at all. Maybe he was involved with a giant, Noviembre Mestre. Ursula and a saw, snowy cabin in the high Pyrenees, lost in time and space? Children and La Fête de l’ours, February 18, La fiesta del oso (2009) festival of the bears, where time stands still. That is does. Are we just searching for lost wars, lost causes, lost souls, lost minds?

Brilliant.

***************

Jordi Soler was born in La Portuguesa, in the state of Veracruz but now lives in Barcelona. Arcadi was his grandfather, Oriol is uncle, Laia his mother, and Marianne his aunt.

Mexico #11, 2024

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jajaja, las tres últimas

[Ana Nuñez Goitia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Después de tener un par de días de paz, disfrute de la fiesta del oso, el mejor de los 3 libros. Frío, triste y a la vez cálido