“Eduardo Mendoza is one of contemporary Spain’s most important writers.”—The New York Times Book Review“Wonderfully inventive and hilarious.”—GuardianReleased from an asylum to help with a police enquiry, the quick-witted and foul-smelling narrator delves deep into the underworld of 1970s Barcelona to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a teenage girl from a convent school, aided only by his prostitute sister Mercedes.Eduardo Mendoza was born in 1943 in Barcelona. He spent some years in New York, where he worked at the United Nations as an interpreter. His other novels include No Word From Gurb, published by Telegram in 2007.