Andrea Víctrix

The best dystopian fiction ever written in Catalan Andrea Víctrix presents a dystopian vision of Palma, Mallorca, now named ‘Turclub’, in the year 2050. The unnamed narrator, who bears a certain resemblance to the author, had placed himself in voluntary cryo-stasis in 1965, fatigued by modern ‘civilization’ and morality, only to reawaken 85 years later with the physique of a 30-year old. Villalonga sets up an intriguing interplay between the narrator and the eponymous, androgynous Andrea Víctrix, so-called Director of Pleasure, in a satirical, sometimes self-ironizing exploration of contemporary issues such as gender and sexuality, consumerism, environmental disaster and the politics of big business. Both of its time and startlingly prescient, Andrea Víctrix merits a place amongst the greats of European dystopian fiction.