Belonging with the work of Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, and Julio Cortázar, this richly drawn story runs the gamut from lyrical to violent to pastoral. Originally published in 1975, Cavalls cap a la fosca was hailed by the public and critics alike as perhaps the most incisive Catalan novel since the Spanish Civil War. It was honored with four prestigious literary prizes, including the 1976 Spanish Literary Critics’ Award
In Horses into the Night, the narrator’s search for his roots—especially for his father—among the myths, stories, lies, and truths of his family and hometown, strikes a universal chord. As the plot becomes increasingly textured with piracy, smuggling, the Inquisition, morbid familial relationships, eroticism, and occult occurrences, it is all but impossible to resist this epic story described by El Pais as a “Mediterranean novel flooded with light and bathed in darkness.”
Baltasar Porcel was born in Andratx, Spain, in 1937, heir to the rich traditions of the Majorcan people. His first novel, Black Sun, was published in 1961 to critical acclaim, receiving the “City of Palma” prize. Porcel’s prodigious body of work includes over twenty books and many short stories and essays.
Translator John L. Getman has lived for years in Catalonia, studying its history and literature, and has worked in the graduate translation program at the University of Arkansas. His translations of Catalan poetry have appeared in several journals. He lives with his wife, Pilar, and their children in Fayetteville, Arkansas, during the school year and in Catalonia during the summer.
“Porcel’s solid literary work is without a doubt one of the most definitive of the quarter century. Deeply rooted in its Catalan traditions, and at the same time open to outside influences from Homer to Proust, from Faulkner to Pavese, his work fulfills all the criteria the specialists include in the magic word ‘modernist’: text that is . . . subjective and introspective but also ironic and, above all, mythical and poetic.”
—Joaquim Molas
