Institut Ramon LLull

Junil in the Lands of the Barbarians

Club Editor, 2021
285 pages
Fiction

Junil a les terres dels bàrbars

Junil in the Lands of the Barbarians

Joan-Lluís Lluís

"A heroine’s journey into the far reaches of the Roman empire in search of exiled Ovid"

After her mother’s death, Junil learns to navigate the world despite her father’s disdain. He puts her to work gluing papyri at his bookstore, where a scribe slave teaches her to read. An unwanted marriage proposal triggers a series of events that sets Junil walking, accompanied by three slaves—the scribe, a librarian, and a gladiator. What begins as a flight from the threat of death becomes a utopian voyage toward freedom, and a paean to language and literature.

“Once upon a time…” begins this fable-like story of a young woman inspired to preserve a scroll of The Metamorphosis from the censor’s flames and deliver it to her beloved poet in exile. This tale of countless adventures—told in a third person where the first person steps in to remind us who’s in control—moves implacably forward in short chapters over the course of four seasons, leading us into the nebulous borderlands and introducing us to the barbarians, their mother tongues, and their pantheon of gods.

FOREIGN RIGHTS CONTACT

Natàlia Berenguer Gamell
Asterisc Agents
natalia@asteriscagents.com
www.asteriscagents.com


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RIGHTS SOLD TO:

  • Club Editor (Spanish)
  • Editorial Sigilo (Spanish)
  • Les argonautes (French)

AWARDS

  • Creixells Award 2022
  • Omnium Award Fiction 2022

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