Institut Ramon LLull

Guillem Agulló was a competitive swimmer and an ardent antifascist and antiracist, and was eighteen years old when he was stabbed to death. Twenty seven years later, this novel tells the story not only of his life and his murder, but how the case laid bare the vestiges of fascism within the Spanish police, judicial system, press, and society. Despite calumnies, obfuscation, and a horrific smear campaign, Guillem lives on as a symbol of freedom. Núria Cadenes engages a restrained, pared-down style in her bare-bones novelization that employs many voices to reflect the crime’s wide-ranging consequences. Interspersed are actual quotes from the author’s interviews of Guillem’s parents and older sister Betlem, and fragments of documents such as police reports, the trial, and media coverage, brought together to create a powerful narrative of a family who refuses to give in to hate and a page-turner of a novel.