Juan Miñana

by Juan Miñana (Author), 

Cath Forrest (Translator) 

£6.99 

A summer of plague in 17th Century Barcelona. A doctor fights the epidemic while a mysterious patient does battle with time itself. An atmospheric historical novel with a metaphysical twist by Juan Miñana.

A jaquemart is an automaton, the mechanical statue that strikes the bell with its hammer to mark the hours on a public clock. As with a marionette, the impassivity of its mask allows all kinds of ideas and emotions to be projected upon it. But whereas a marionette is animated by the skill of a puppeteer manipulating its strings, in a jaquemart the human skill goes into crafting the intricate clockwork that brings it to life. 

Royal watchmaker Juan de Ameno works obsessively on a jaquemart for the clocktower of Barcelona cathedral, a bronze figure with a sinister resemblance to himself that he hopes will bring him some kind of immortality. As the Black Cloaked Lady of the plague spreads death through the wards of the Holy Cross hospital, where monks tend the sick and aromatic bonfires burn in the courtyards, Doctor Buenaventura Deulocrega tries to persuade him to take a gentler, more human approach to the passing of Time. 

Author: Juan Miñana

Translation and cover photo: Cath Forrest

By Juan Miñana (author)

Cath Forrest (translator)

Paperback £8.99

A summer of plague in 17th Century Barcelona. A doctor fights the epidemic while a mysterious patient does battle with time itself. An atmospheric historical novel with a metaphysical twist by Juan Miñana.

A jaquemart is an automaton, the mechanical statue that strikes the bell with its hammer to mark the hours on a public clock. As with a marionette, the impassivity of its mask allows all kinds of ideas and emotions to be projected upon it. But whereas a marionette is animated by the skill of a puppeteer manipulating its strings, in a jaquemart the human skill goes into crafting the intricate clockwork that brings it to life. 

Royal watchmaker Juan de Ameno works obsessively on a jaquemart for the clocktower of Barcelona cathedral, a bronze figure with a sinister resemblance to himself that he hopes will bring him some kind of immortality. As the Black Cloaked Lady of the plague spreads death through the wards of the Holy Cross hospital, where monks tend the sick and aromatic bonfires burn in the courtyards, Doctor Buenaventura Deulocrega tries to persuade him to take a gentler, more human approach to the passing of Time. 

Author: Juan Miñana

Translation and cover photo: Cath Forrest