La ciudad de los prodigios

Here is the story of Onofre Bouvila, a poor Catalan country boy who arrives in Barcelona in 1886 and lies, cheats, and murders his way to enormous wealth and power.

Young Onofre first stays at a boardinghouse whose permanent residents are a distingue closet transvestite, a lady fortuneteller who treats her clients to large doses of doom, a garrulous barber who also pulls teeth, and a scullery maid who protects her virginity with the aid of a ferocious cat

Here is the story of Onofre Bouvila, a poor Catalan country boy who arrives in Barcelona in 1886 and lies, cheats, and murders his way to enormous wealth and power.

Young Onofre first stays at a boardinghouse whose permanent residents are a distingue closet transvestite, a lady fortuneteller who treats her clients to large doses of doom, a garrulous barber who also pulls teeth, and a scullery maid who protects her virginity with the aid of a ferocious cat. Onofre, for his part, quickly establishes himself as an anarchist agitator. Yet he realizes just as quickly that his skills as organizer can be put to better use—selling a cure for baldness. He goes on to form a burglary ring, instigate real estate deals, build a film empire, but a world-famous diamond, reconstruct a mansion with eleven balconies, fall in and out of love with three women, and throw a reception for the Tsarina of Russia—where he chats with Rasputin while planning to sell arms to the Bolsheviks.

Meanwhile, in marvelous digressions, we learn about an old sailor who speaks a language no academic can identify; a nun who plays the accordion for the dying to cheer them up; a missionary priest who goes to the Sudan to make converts but is himself converted to the Dervish religion and returns home to preach sorcery; and about Eulalia, the patron saint of Barcelona, who steps down from her pedestal in the cathedral to talk to the mayor about housing problems.