The Garden of Secrets

Book Jacket

Twenty-eight storytellers - one for each letter in the Arabic alphabet - meet in a garden to tell the story of a poet, Eusebio, arrested in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. Eusebio, a friend of Garcia Lorca and his Circle, had escaped assassination and fled to North Africa." "Some tales embroider his shadowly life with stories that feature the pasha's cook, the slave-market, Aysha and the stork... Others want to know if Eusebio betrayed his fascist friends by confessing in a show-trial or played the shadowy role of double-agent. Is he Eugenio the World War Two black marketeer from Tangiers or Alphonse van Worden, supposed descendent of Count Potocki, doyen of Marrakesh queens with his Rolls, Philippines' chauffeur and home showings of Mary Pickford movies?" "With answers that are violent, parodic and erotic, Goytisolo's storytellers question the nature of memory, history and myth.}