A vampire and the rational man who pursues him are at the whirling center of this eerie, elegant novel set in the Spain of the 1830s—a Spain convulsed by the Carlist civil wars. A young aristocrat of Barcelona, Antoni de Montpalau, a passionate believer in science, progress, and the rights of man, is summoned to the aid of a village beset by some inexplicable evil. Relying on scientific logic, Antoni deduces the existence of a vampire—the first ever to appear in Spain—and sets forth to test his theory, following a scent of cruelty and disaster across the land. His quarry—his foe—is indeed a creature of darkness, an undead nobleman of the thirteenth century known as the Dip. This strange and macabre presence stalks Antoni in turn, assuming various shapes and guises: a bee, a goat, a brutal guerrilla leader known as the Owl ... until the moment when hunter and hunted must meet ... the moment when, it seems, Antoni must both win and lose. Combining myth, history, and his own exuberant imagination, Joan Perucho has fashioned a singular tale of shadow and light, poetic adventure, and political struggle—a stunning philosophical thriller.