The latest addition to my website is Ventura Ametller‘s Summa kaòtica (Summa Kaotica). This is one of the great Catalan novels, which has finally made it into English. It is set in Poel, based on Amettler’s hometown of Pals. It starts both with the birth of the Second Spanish Republic, founded in 1931, as well as the birth of our hero who has numerous names though primarily Anamorphus, who grows up remarkably quickly and is soon off on a picaresque, madcap, chaotic journey of Poel and environs, where he has a host of adventures, meets witches, magicians and many other strange characters, even while the Spanish Civil War is raging. When the war ends Franco and his lackeys try to destroy Catalan character but do not, of course, succeed, even it is banned in schools and churches. Amettler does not hold back in his mocking condemnation of Franco & Co, including his foreign allies and shows that Catalan culture can and will survive. However it is the madcap, chaotic story that makes this novel such an enjoyable read.