A counterfactual history in which the Republicans win the Civil War, written by Jaume Oliver, winner of the Ciutat de Palma novel prize.

Palm"I wanted to imagine the Mallorca where Captain Bayo landed and succeeded," says journalist Jaume Oliver Ripoll (Palma, 1975), summarizing the novelOne day we will storm the city with iron horsesOliver has won the 2025 Ciutat de Palma Llorenç Villalonga Novel Prize, worth €26,000. "I'm very happy because it's one of the most prestigious prizes still around," says Oliver. "I have to admit that I think it's what I was most excited about. It's a prize that has managed to maintain its independence, and for me, that's very important," reflects the historian. However, he doesn't hide his surprise: besides being exciting, the awarding of the prize also came as a shock. "Mainly because this isn't the kind of novel that's usually awarded in this competition, because it flirts shamelessly with science fiction, but that's why I'm also happy, that a work like this has been recognized," he explains.

The starting point for all of this, as Oliver explains, is a map he has hanging in his house, a reproduction of the urban redevelopment plan for Palma proposed by the architect Gabriel Bennàssar in 1917. "There was, for example, an immense green area next to Bellver Castle that was larger than the old quarter of Palma. I used to amuse myself by running my finger over that map I was given, imagining that city that could never be because of the arrival of the Civil War." Thus, in that city imagined by Bennàssar and never built, Oliver found the seed for a novel that he has developed over more than four years, centered on the conversations between a woman, Roma Vidal Silverstone, and a man named Bradley who claims to have lived through the consequences between 1941 and 1946. With a diversity of formats and styles, and also with many journalistic, literary, and cinematic references, ranging from Philip K. Dick toThe Silence of the Lambs,Oliver has created a puzzle that the reader is forced to piece together.

A cry of alarm

"Ultimately, it's a book about memory, about the importance of historical memory, which also touches on resistance and revolution," explains Oliver. In fact, the author, who debuted in 2019 withA disordered chronicle of Old City, he says that for a time the book's provisional title wasHow to win a losing warAlthough he ultimately used it to write the chapter explaining the time travel to this alternate reality. Asked about the current rise of the far right, Oliver asserts that the novel also serves as a wake-up call. "After all, literature should also serve this purpose, to alert us to the dangers we face right now. We are living in a time of democratic backsliding that I had never experienced before. I was born 17 days before Franco died, so until now I can say that I have always lived in this world, from Parliament; I never imagined it," he summarizes.

And while Oliver, who has worked as a writer for RTVE Baleares for over two decades, claims to have considered himself "a writer before a journalist," he takes advantage of the award to champion journalism and television as spaces where he has been able to cultivate and hone his literary side. "My literary Catalan has been decidedly shaped by television. I've been writing every day for thirty years, so I've absorbed both the themes and the storytelling techniques of this medium, something that can also be perceived in the novel," he shares.

Regarding the fact that the novel that won the same prize just a year ago, initially titledThe stars don't speakand signed by Joan Moragues Roca, has not yet been published, asThe author reported the ARA BalearesOliver believes this is a "demonstration of how the publishing sector currently operates, especially in Catalan." "I don't yet have any signed agreements with publishers, but I do know how incredibly difficult it is to get your manuscripts submitted and read, and it's very frustrating," he shares.