In a Barcelona weary of living under the yoke of Alfonso XIII, a group of activists plans an attack on the coast of a small beach town, among them Miquel Badia, a Catalan politician. Meanwhile, a young journalist from Manresa, Josep Maria Planas, decides to seek his fortune in Barcelona and begins collaborating with La Publicitat, a local newspaper. At the same time, Justo Bueno, a Catalan anarcho-syndicalist militant and gunman, starts his involvement in the worker’s movement, standing out as a man of action. These are three young men embodying diverse dreams and hopes, destined to be swept away by the winds of history.
With a blend of tragedy and betrayal, Gàngsters de Barcelona is a gripping novel that delves into Catalan politics, spanning from the dying days of Alfonso XIII’s monarchy to the bloody early days of Franco’s dictatorship, from the fight for democracy to the nightmare of a vengeful dictatorship. It reminds us how politics eventually brought together two figures often at odds, Planas and Badia, and how both became victims of anarchist fury unleashed in 1936. Yet it also reminds us that those who play the game of immoral assassinations may end up dying at the hands of those they once empowered.