A Dickensian tale of ambition, family, and financial ruin by the most important Spanish novelist after Cervantes, this tragicomic novel about a patriarch struggling to keep his ungrateful family from ruin is at turns scathing and hilarious. Ram n Villaamil has been a loyal civil servant his whole life, but a change in government leaves him out of a job and still two months short of qualifying for his pension. Initially optimistic that he'll be able to find work and pull his family out of their financial straits, he spends his days visiting the Administration, pestering his ex-colleagues to put in a good word for him, and begging his friends in high places for money. At home, Villaamil's wife, daughter, and sister-in-law--whose feline appearances earn them the nickname 'the Miaows'--are unimpressed by Villaamil's failures, and the only joy left in Villaamil's life is his young grandson Luis. When Luis's disgraced father, the handsome and dastardly V ctor Cadalso reappears in their
