num_pages: 352
description: An exile returns to Spain from France to find that he is repelled by the fascism of Franco's Spain and drawn to the world of Muslim culture. In this novel, Juan Goytisolo, one of Spain's most celebrated novelists, speaks for a generation of Spaniards who were only small children during the Spanish Civil War, grew up under a stifling dictatorship, and, in many cases, emigrated in desperation from their dying country. Upon his return, the narrator confronts the most controversial political, religious, social, and sexual issues of our time with ferocious energy and elegant prose. Torn between the Islamic and European worlds around him, he finds both ultimately unsatisfactory. In the end, only displacement survives.
language: English
title: Marks of Identity
titlecomplete: Marks of Identity
genres: Classics, LGBT, Fantasy, Novels, Spanish Literature, Spain, 20th Century, Literature, Historical Fiction, Fiction
ratings_count: 541
places: Spain
series: Trilogía Álvaro Mendiola
awards: awardedAt: 157795200000
name: PEN Translation Prize
category: Helen R. Lane, awardedAt: 1325404800000
name: Premio Valle-Inclán
category: Peter Bush
publisher: Dalkey Archive Press