For a Sack of Bones

by Lluís-Anton Baulenas, Cheryl Morgan (Translator), Cheryl Morgan (Translation)

** DEBUT FICTION**   This story, among many other things, is about two men who are gone from the world but are still very much mine. Their deaths occurred after the fighting stopped, but the war still got them in the end. This story is also about keeping promises. And it’s about revenge. After eight years in exile, Sergeant Genís Aleu returns to the city of Barcelona bearing the mark of a man who has seen many battles—and who has one last mission ahead of him. A soldier in the infamous foreign legion, Aleu cuts a fearsome figure as he negotiates around the paranoid and suspicious citizens of Franco’s Spain, single-mindedly trying to fulfill his father’s dying wish. But beneath the gruff and gritty life of a legionnaire are echoes of Niso—Aleu as a young boy in a charity orphanage—and Niso’s passionate devotion to his family, the ideals of his country, and the possibility of a better future. Now, as the people of Spain struggle to survive under the thumb of Fascist oppression, Aleu hurtles toward his own reckoning with the truth of war and the dangerous effects of living a lie.

Genres: Fiction, Spain, Historical Fiction

359 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Lluís-Anton Baulenas (Barcelona, 1958) is a Catalan novelist, translator and playwright.
Among his works are the novels Rampoines 451 (Good-for-Nothing 451, 1990), Noms à la sorra (Names in the Sand, 1995), which was a finalist for the Sant Jordi Prize, Alfons XIV (1997), also a finalist for the Sant Jordi Prize, El fil de plata (The Silver Thread, 1998), which was awarded the Serra d'Or Critics’ Prize, and La felicitat (Happiness, 2001), which received the Prudenci Bertrana Prize.
In 2005 Baulenas won the most prestigious award in Catalan letters, the Ramon Llull prize, for his novel Per un sac d’ossos (For a Sack of Bones), dealing with the Spanish civil war. The Toronto Star, reviewing the English translation (July 13, 2008), commented that "Baulenas is an accomplished storyteller whose narrative never falters, never veers off-course, never relinquishes its hold on the reader."

Reviews

[GythaOgg · Rating 1 out of 5]

peccato...promette molto, mantiene poco!

[Eva María · Rating 5 out of 5]

Otro gran libro, con un poderoso título y una portada bellísima. Y una historia que no puedes soltar hasta devorarla toda. Estupendo Baulenas.

[lubiszjazz · Rating 3 out of 5]

bardzo ciekawe lecz dużo mi czegoś brakowało

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book for $1 in a dollar store. What a treasure; it is a story about keeping promises, the brutality of war, Spain suffering under facism and the suppression of a language now lost; Catalan. It is also a story about revenge but mostly it is a true story of war that seems to be learned over and over again as we humans keep starting wars generally with greed being the central part of starting them.

[Garryvivianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty good story. A young man who is trying to fulfill his father's wish & his promise to his dying father. That being to find his old friend's grave & dig up the bones & give him a proper burial. The story goes back & forth to the man's childhood. Growing up in Spain with his mother as his father goes off to war. The stories of his childhood were very interesting. I found it ok.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Descriu extremadament bé l'època, emocionant.

[Dbarbakow]

worth reading. not at the top of the stack.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Translated from Catalan, this is a somewhat longish tale of one man's life in the shadow of the totalitarian horror that was the reign of Generalissimo Francisco Franco in Spain. Set in the immediate aftermath of World War II with flashbacks to the period of the Spanish Civil War, the story follows its protagonist as he attempts to keep a promise he made to his father before the latter perished in one of Franco's concentration camps. Without spoiling it for anyone, I can say that the book is pretty relentlessly depressing, but the writing is strong as are the characterizations of the main character, his best friend known as No-Sister-Salvador, and a nun who forms an unlikely alliance with the two of them. Don't expect happy endings, and you won't be disappointed.