'Against the backdrop of bitter fratricidal war is set a timeless story of three men who love the same woman. Sales condemns the fascists and anarchists with equal vehemence. In describing the war in its full complexity, he avoids a simplistic division into good and evil. Even the novel’s hero, Juli Soleràs, the most compelling character in Catalan literature, is more of an anti-hero: half philosopher, half cynic, locked in an eternal struggle with himself.'

Originally published in Catalan in 1956, albeit in a heavily censored form, Uncertain Glory was the first novel to tell the story of the Spanish Civil War from the losers’ side. Joan Sales fought on the Madrid and Aragon fronts before fleeing into exile. He distilled his experiences of this bitter fratricidal conflict into a timeless story of three men who love the same woman.

Despite his allegiances, Sales avoids a simplistic division into good and evil. The novel’s hero, Juli Soleràs, perhaps the most compelling character in Catalan literature, is more of an anti-hero: half philosopher, half cynic, locked in an eternal struggle with himself.

JOAN SALES (1912-1983) was a Catalan writer and publisher. He obtained a law degree in 1932 and was a member of regional anarchist and communist groups. In the Civil War he fought on the Madrid and Aragon front before going into exile in France in 1939. He moved to Mexico in 1942, returning to Catalonia in 1948, after which he began working as a publisher. Uncertain Glory, his most famous novel, was first published in 1956, though a combination of censorship and Sales’ tendency towards revision meant that a definitive edition was not available until 1971. 

PETER BUSH is a freelancer translator from the Spanish, particular Catalan. He worked as a lecturer for many years and was Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) and Professor of Literary Translation at the Unversity of East Anglia. He lived in Barcelona for many years and has recently moved to Oxford. He was awarded the 2012 Ramón del Valle-Inclán Prize for his translation of Exiled from Almost Everywhere by Juan Goytisolo. 

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CATALAN LITERARY AUTUMN 2014

This autumn sees the publication of two other books by major Catalan writers:

Confessions by Jaume Cabré (translated by Mara Faye Letham) is out in hardback with Arcadia Books on 15 October 2014.  

Josep Pla’s The Gray Notebook (also translated by Peter Bush) is published by New York Review of Books in the UK on 6 November 2014.