With over a hundred books written, Camilo José Serra is a real library in itself. In these books, filled with the most surprising contrasts, tales of crude humor stand side by side with some of the most sombre, lonely works in European literature.
Serra was a young poet in Madrid when the Spanish Civil War was approaching. As a participant and a resistance fighter, almost more than any writer, he was at the center of those harrowing events. After serving in the trenches, being wounded and spending time in field hospitals, he made his debut as a prose writer - after the war ended, he came home and Spain began its long, dreary years under the new regime. At that time, the higher-ups wanted to see books that were useful for enlightenment, preferably books that described singing and dancing and a peaceful and prosperous age. Serra's first novel is about a murderer with multiple personalities narrating his life history before he is executed. "The Family of Pascual Duarte" in Burgo, capital of the Spanish province of Burgos, in 1942. Printed in secret in a garage, the edition was nearly sold out by the time it came to official attention. The censors gradually adopted a resigned attitude towards the book. This book is certainly the most widely read of all Spanish-language novels, after Don Quixote. The story of this matricide can be read as an allegory, a mythical tale of Spain's great suffering and fierce internal struggles.