num_pages: 231
description: David's alcoholic father, who is being pursued for political reasons, has deserted David and his attractive red-haired mother. David inhabits a fantasy world, fuelled by the films he sees at his local cinema and by images of war - Spitfires crashing into the sea, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima - and by the image of an RAF pilot whose photograph is pinned on his bedroom wall. David and his friend spend their time collecting detachable lizards' tail; symbolic of the detachment and uncertainty which characterises their young lives in troubled post-war Spain.
language: English
title: Lizard Tails
titlecomplete: Lizard Tails
genres: Drama, Spanish Literature, Spain, 20th Century, Historical Fiction, Fiction
ratings_count: 705
awards: awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
category: Shortlist, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Premio de la Crítica de Narrativa Castellana, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Premio Nacional de Narrativa
publisher: Vintage Books USA