The Holy Innocents

By Miguel Delibes

A shattering tale of oppression and resistance during Franco's dictatorship, by a beloved Spanish novelist

"Passion in ordinary lives, sobriety and melancholy are the flavors of Delibes's writing . . . with a profound empathy for nature and the poor. . . . The Holy Innocents is] a ferocious story."--The Guardian

Named One of the Best 100 Spanish-Language Novels of the Twentieth Century (El Mundo) - Adapted into an Award-Winning Film by Mario Camus

In the arid province of Extremadura in 1960s Spain, life on a country estate carries on as it has for centuries: wealthy landowners live in luxury while workers endure lives of poverty and humiliation. Amid this exploitation and injustice live R gula, an estate's gatekeeper, and her husband, Paco, the hunting attendant of the contemptuous Se orito Iv n. R gula's brother Azar as toils as a farmhand, but he prefers chasing tawny owls at night, training his pet jackdaw, and caring for his young niece, who is bedridden. When Paco is injured, the nature-loving Azar as is forced to take over as hunting attendant. But after Se orito Iv n commits an act of enormous cruelty following an unsuccessful hunt, it is only a matter of time before the simmering tensions between the aristocracy and the workers explode.

A perennial Spanish classic, translated into twelve languages but never before into English, The Holy Innocents is a searing tale of human cruelty and alienation, in which resistance and liberation are not just necessary but possible.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300275137
• ISBN13: 9780300275131
• Release Date: May 2025
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 144 Pages