"Caterva" (meaning "throng" or "horde") tells the story of seven erudite, homeless, and semi-incompetent radicals traveling from city to city in an attempt to foment a revolution: conspiring with striking workers, setting off bombs, and evading the local authorities. But this is no political thriller. Like his literary "descendant" Julio Cortazar--who mentions this book in "Hopscotch"--Filloy is far more concerned with his characters' occasionally farcical inner lives than with their radical machinations. With its encyclopedic feel, and its satirical look at both solidarity and nonconformity,...

Recounting surveys the social history of Barcelona and Catalonia, primarily since the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939. The novel follows the youth and education of Raul Ferrer Gaminde, son of a well-connected, middle-class Catalan family that embraces Franco and Spanish Nationalism. The novel's potent drama plays out through Goytisolo's crisp, forceful presentation of youth, humor, optimism, rebellion, violence, sexual awakening, indulgence, punishment, and the realization of one's artistic vocation. Alternately modern and historical, Recuento displays intelligent realism,...

 Imagining the figure of the fictional detective as an archetype in the study of modern culture, the author argues that contemporary detective fiction can help us better comprehend fundamental shifts of the Digital Age--in communication, family, entertainment, society, even the way we think as individuals. The nature of the detective story itself models how we build and share knowledge. Drawing on concepts from literature and media studies, the author reveals clues about modern phenomena like conspiracy theory, groupthink and the nature of our digital identities.