"This work deserves the highest recognition . . . no-one can deny Juan Goytisolo is the main Spanish novelist on active service."-Carlos Fuentes

"A beautifully written metaphor for what it means to seek out the truth in a world often dominated by lies . . . this author, now 70 years of age, is one of the most brilliant of living writers."-The Los Angeles Times

Twenty-eight storytellers-one for each letter in the Arabic alphabet-meet in a garden to tell the story of a poet, Eusebio, arrested in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. Eusebio, a friend of Garcia Lorca and his circle, had escaped assassination and fled to North Africa.

Born in Barcelona, Juan Goytisolo left Spain in hatred of Franco. He now lives in Marrakesh, Morocco.