Soldats de lleva

Cuba was so far from Valencian lands, but the young people looked at the horizon for fear of being sent to the island to make the soldier. While John, the first of six brothers, plowed the fields of wheat or plowed the almond trees and vineyards, he wondered what his fate would be. His mother, aunt and grandmother prayed that he would play a high number in the draw for the soldiers and that he could stay on the Peninsula. But this was not the case and they sent him to a distant war, in which he would leave with little luggage: the hope of returning alive and the consolation of knowing the world. This novel recreates the war experience of camouflage soldiers who fought in the Cuban War in the late 19th century. With a solid style, it bears witness to a generation marked by strife and turns this conflict into a universal story. Not without reason, the work won the Antoni Bru d'Elx Narrative Prize.