Miquel Llor (Barcelona 1894 - 1966) was a novelist, short story writer and translator. His elaborate prose reveals the influence of Joyce, Proust, Svevo, Dostoevsky and Freud, and his work is essential reading for understanding the recovery and evolution of the novel in twentieth-century Catalan literature, after this genre had been all but abandoned with movements such as Noucentisme. Llor became famous with his novel Laura a la ciutat dels sants (Laura in the City of Saints) (1931), which received the 1930 Joan Crexells prize. Here he describes with profound insight the atmosphere of a city that is hostile to the behaviour of the heroine of the book, producing an analysis which borders on psychological realism. He worked for many years in the Culture Department of the Barcelona City Council in charge of orthographic correction of work written in Catalan. His translations of Gide and Alberto Moravia, amongst others, are remarkable.



Documentation: Gabriel Boloix, Pilar Monné and Iolanda Pelegrí.
Up-date: Carme Ros.
Translation: Julie Wark.
Photograhs: © Personal archive of Elias Valverde Llor's family.