''War, So Much War'' (original title in Catalan ''Quanta, quanta guerra...'') is a Catalan

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

that was written by the author Mercè Rodoreda, first published in 1980. The novel was written during the author's stay in the house of her friend Carme Manrubia, in Romanyà de la Selva. This book together with ''Viatges a uns quants pobles'', a part of the series ''Viatges i flors'', Made Rodoreda win the

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

prize. The book also received the Crítica Serra d'Or prize in 1980. Ana María Moix was the writer who translated the book from Catalan to Spanish; the translated book was published in 1982. According to the explanation of the author in the prologue to the book, the original title of the book was supposed to be: ''El soldat i les roses'' (The soldier and the roses) and the name of the protagonist of the novel was to be Manuel. Nevertheless, this idea was changed and "Manuel" became Adrià Guinart. Rodoreda also confessed that in "War so much war" is not a show of battles because her intention was to do the same as

Jan Potocki Count Jan Potocki (; 8 March 1761 – 23 December 1815) was a Polish nobleman, ethnologist, linguist, traveller and author of the Enlightenment period, whose life and exploits made him a celebrated figure in Poland. He is known chiefly for his ...

in the novel, ''

The Manuscript Found in Saragossa ''The Manuscript Found in Saragossa'' (; also known in English as ''The Saragossa Manuscript'') is a frame tale, frame-tale novel written in French language, French at the turn of 18th and 19th centuries by the Poland, Polish author Count Jan Pot ...

'' where

Saragossa Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

is also not shown.

Plot

During the Spanish civil war, Adrià Guinart, a fifteen-year-old boy, tired of his lack of life experience and his yearning for freedom, decides to go to the front with his childhood friend. During the war, Adrià's personality is in a real process of learning about human nature. "I left home so that I could encounter new villages, meet people, and because I was tired of my mother. . and nothing could have stopped me. And also so I could go off to war. Although I've had the war close-at-hand, I can't say I have experienced it, because I fled from it as often as I could"

References

{{Authority control 1980 Spanish novels