The latest addition to my website is Joan Sales‘ Incerta glòria (Uncertain Glory). This is a long rambling novel but is considered the best Catalan Civil War novel. It focusses on four people. The first is Lluis, an intellectual and a lawyer who lives in his own world, though he has a common-law wife, Trini, and a son back in Barcelona. He meets the widow of the local lord of the manor, a working woman who had married the lord, and he falls for her. His best friend is the cynical Soleràs, who is secretly in love with Trini himself but whom she considers as a brother rather than a lover. The second part of the novel follows Trini in Barcelona, both her life before the War and her current life, agonising over Lluis and his fidelity (he hardly writes to her) and suffering the problems in Barcelona, while reminiscing about her past. The third part focusses on Cruells, the unit medical orderly, who is religious (a dangerous, at times fatal thing to be in Barcelona), who becomes increasingly disillusioned. We see the war is 99% boredom, 1% sheer terror approach, as the unit sees some action, which gets worse as the war progresses, but much of the time they spend drinking, chasing women and philosophising. It is perhaps a bit long but still a worthwhile read to see a picture of the Republican cause that is not always rosy.