Nijar country /

"Juan Goytisolo is one of the most rigorous and original contemporary writers."--Mario Vargas Llosa

"One of the most brilliant of living writers."-- Los Angeles Times

An intimate account of travel in Andalusia during the 1950s, Juan Goytisolo's early, short narrative grimly revisits the province of Almer#65533;a, still under Franco's rule. The critic Ram#65533;n Fern#65533;ndez Palmeral writes: "More than a mere travelog, Goytisolo bravely chose to report the social and economic life in the Almer#65533;a of those Franquista years." He adds: "Brave, most of all, because by publishing it, even at first in France, Goytisolo risked being sent to jail."

To this day, the Andalusian tourist bureau highly recommends N#65533;jar Country for its keenness and accuracy of observation--human, botanical, linguistic, geographical--so tourists on site and in armchairs may superimpose those still haunting walls graffitied FRANCO, FRANCO, FRANCO on what N#65533;jar Country also indicts as "postcard Spain."

Juan Goytisolo , Spanish novelist and essayist, was born in Barcelona in 1931. He now lives in Marrakech, Morocco. His most famous novels are Marks of Identity (1966), Count Julian (1970), and Juan the Landless (1975), each of which was banned in Spain until after Franco's death.