(The Mule). Set in the Spanish Civil War, this daring novel is an absurdist outcry against war in any form. Juan Castro’s mule is more important to him than winning the war, so he sets out on an odyssey to find his animal, crossing the bloody front line that divided Spain between freedom and dictatorship. Despite Juan’s focus on amorous advances as opposed to militaristic ones, he becomes a war hero. Castro’s journey through a Goyaesque landscape gives us an antiheroic and tender outlook on the Spanish Civil War.
