Victus
Victus, the fall of Barcelona, is a historical novel by the Catalan anthropologist Albert Sánchez Piñol published by HarperCollins in September 2014. It is based in the fictitious biography of the Lieutenant Colonel Marti Zuviria who, being 98, tells from Vienna his memories as an engineer serving the commander Antoni de Villarroel during the War of the Spanish Succession, especially during the Siege of Barcelona (1713–14).
Written originally in Spanish, but quickly translated to Catalan and many other languages, including English. Since its publication in Spanish on October 2012, the book has sold more than 200,000 copies either in Catalan or Spanish, and the rights of translation has been sold to be translated in Russian, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, French, Korean and Croatian. In 2015, the author published the novel's sequel, Vae Victus [1]
Controversy
On September the 4, 2014, its launch ceremony in Utrecht it was cancelled because of pressures of the Spanish Embassy in the Nederlands. It was declared as "sensitive for the political moment" and blamed for "historical distortion".[2][3]
Juliette van Wersch, the Dutch editor of Victus, described the fact as censorship.[4]
References
- ↑ 324.cat, ed. (23 April 2014). "Albert Sánchez Piñol prepara la segona part de 'Victus'".
- ↑ Vilaweb (ed.). "La presentació de 'Victus' als Països Baixos, suspesa per pressions de l'ambaixada espanyola". Retrieved 5 September 2014.
- ↑ Bassas, Antoni. "L'editorial d'Antoni Bassas". Diari Ara. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
- ↑ "Spanje verbiedt lezing in Utrecht" (in Dutch).