Tríptico del mal: Señas de identidad; Don Julián ; Juan sin tierra

Author: Juan Goytisolo
- Fiction
- El Aleph Editores
- ISBN: 9788476696620
- Release Date: 01-01-1970
-Reviewed by: Fernando Velázquez Medina

Regarded as one of the greatest living Spanish novelists (though he now lives in self-exile in Morocco), this tríptico (or triptych) – name later given to the trilogy by the publisher El Aleph Editores in 2004 – may be Goytisolo’s most challenging and mystifying achievement. Also known as the Álvaro Mendiola trilogy, it comprises three novels: Señas de identidad (Marks of Identity, 1966), Reivindicación del conde don Julián (Count Julian, 1970), and Juan sin tierra (1975). Because of their subversive nature, all three were banned in Spain until after Franco’s death. Originally published in 1975 by Seix Barral, Juan sin tierra was revised by Goytisolo in 2006. Together, they are a categorical rejection of Spain’s past and celebration of the power of writing through his self-reflexive narration and a postmodern protagonist named Julián, the great traitor and count of Ceuta.

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