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Requiem for a Spanish Peasant

Requiem for a Spanish Peasant

Our Review

With this novel, Ramón J. Sender achieved something very few authors do: to encapsulate the entire tragedy of the Spanish Civil War in just a handful of pages, and to do so with sober and moving beauty.

This is a book that makes an impact due to its economy of language. Sender uses a dry, harsh, and direct style —very Aragonese— to weave a story about guilt and memory that leaves you transfixed. The image of Mosén Millán waiting in the sacristy, remembering the life of the man he saw born and whom, in some way, he helped die, is one of the most powerful scenes in our literature.

This Austral edition is a total success because it includes a prologue by Ignacio Martínez de Pisón, who perfectly understands Sender's universe and prepares you for the emotional depth you are about to encounter. It is an essential book, one that you read in an afternoon but that resonates throughout your life.

Book Details

Synopsis

In a small Aragonese village, the priest Mosén Millán prepares to officiate a requiem mass for the soul of Paco el del Molino, murdered a year earlier. As he waits in the sacristy, sitting in his armchair, memories flood his mind.

Through the priest's memory, we reconstruct Paco's life: from his baptism and wedding to his political awakening and tragic end. While the altar boy enters and exits, humming a popular ballad already circulating in the village that narrates the peasant's death, Mosén Millán confronts his own ghosts and the role he played in the young man's destiny. Three rich men from the village enter to pay for the mass, but the church remains empty of peasants, in a silence that judges and accuses.

About the author

Ramón J. Sender (Chalamera, Huesca, 1901 - San Diego, 1982) is one of the most important narrators of 20th-century Spanish literature and the great voice of the Republican exile. His extensive and varied work is characterized by deep social commitment and great expressive power. Author of fundamental novels such as Imán and the Crónica del alba series, he wrote Requiem for a Spanish Peasant (originally titled Mosén Millán) during his exile in Mexico, making it his most universal and widely read work.

Technical Sheet

  • Pages: 121

  • Author: Ramón J. Sender

  • Prologue: Ignacio Martínez de Pisón

  • Publisher: Austral 

  • Binding: Hardcover

  • Edition: 2023

  • ISBN: 9788423363360

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