Goytisolo, Juan

(Spanish, 1931– )

A deeply serious writer, Juan Goytisolo's opposition to the Franco regime meant that he lived for many years in political exile in Paris. Since Franco's death, Goytisolo has been recognized as one of the most important Spanish novelists of the century. Marks of Identity (1966) is the first of a trilogy of novels about a Spanish exile in Morocco whose bitter criticisms of his homeland centre on the figure of Julian, a legendary traitor said to have opened the country to Moorish invasion during the Middle Ages. Count Julian (1970) and Juan the Landless (1975) complete Goytisolo's trilogy. Virtues of the Solitary Bird (1993) is an intense and lyrical novel based on the visions of St Teresa of Avila, while Landscapes After the Battle (1983) is a fragmentary account of the writer's own exile.

Mario Vargas Llosa, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Gabriel García Márquez  WB