Aventures i desventures de l’insòlit i admirable Joan Orpí, conquistador i fundador de la Nova Catalunya
(Adventures and Misadventures of Joan Orpí, Conqueror and New Catalonia Founder) Joan Orpí (Piera, 1593 – New Barcelona, 1645) is one of the most unknown characters in Spanish history. In this torrential book we are told the odyssey that brought him first to Barcelona, later to Sevilla and finally to America, where he would experience all kinds of outlandish situations.
Using historical facts as raw material, and with stellar appearances of characters such as Miguel de Cervantes or the brigand Serrallonga among others, Besora converses with the satirical tradition of works such as Gargantua and Pantagruel, Gulliver’s Travels or Don Quixote, to paint a fresco of Catalonia in the 17th century and the Golden Age of the Spanish empire, creating a novel, fresh, sharp and bursting with exuberant adventures.
PRESS
«Like Don Quixote, this is a chivalric novel, seasoned with the humour of an author with wit in spades. Besora grew up with the toxic style of the great US underground cartoonists, the “Weirdo” gang, and you can tell.» Timeout
«An heir to Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne and Swift, Besora has conceived his novel as a giant neo-baroque container with room for everything and more besides. The combination of events, registers, genres and characters is manic in its variety.» Pere Antoni Pons, Ara
«This novel is here to atone for a glaring oversight in the history of Catalan literature, reviving a tradition that has seemed all but dead since the time of Tirant lo Blanc, since any language deserves, at the very least, two great satirical novels; and this one is so Catalan it hurts.» Montserrat Serra, Vila Web
TRANSLATIONS
English World, Open Letter