num_pages: 269
description: A Buñuelian family saga set in Franco's Spain. The protagonists: Carlos, a ruined Republican lawyer; Matilde, a grande bourgeoise with revolutionary tendencies; and their sons, Antonio and Ignacio, brothers, allies, lovers.Into a shuttered house, where ghosts of past rebellion and present defeat taint the air, Ignacio is born, the carnivorous lamb of the title. His father stays locked in his study, amid memories of political failure. His mother, vague but implacable ruler of her shadowy domain, refuses to acknowledge her younger son's existence. Only his brother, Antonio, is real - father-surrogate, teacher, protector, and, eventually, lover. This love affair is the hard core of the story, from which radiates an array of sharp spokes, neatly spearing Franco, Family, Church, and even a stray home-economics graduate from the United States.Beyond the account of one family's suffocation under an intolerable regime, beyond its moving portrayal of two brothers' physical and spiritual love for each other, THE CARNIVOROUS LAMB offers an incisive, savagely funny, and not entirely despairing look at post-Civil War Spain.
language: French
title: The Carnivorous Lamb
titlecomplete: The Carnivorous Lamb
characters: Ignacio, Carlos, Mathilde, Antonio
genres: Romance, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Spanish Literature, Historical, Gay, Queer, LGBT, Gay Fiction, Classics
ratings_count: 1120
places: Spain
awards: name: Prix Hermés
publisher: David R. Godine