Unpublished Novel by Ana María Moix Criticizing Religious Schools Resurfaces After Decades

In 1975, Catalan writer Ana María Moix received a fellowship from the Fundación Juan March to write her next novel, La gata Maula. At the time, Moix had already published poetry collections and two of her most recognized works, Julia and Walter ¿por qué te fuiste?. Esther Tusquets, a friend and then director of the publishing house Lumen, acted as her guarantor. Moix began writing and submitted various versions to her tutor, whose reports evolved from optimistic to ultimately recommending against publication. The novel was completed in 1976 but never saw the light of day. Recently, Sofía González Gómez, a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the University of Alcalá de Henares, discovered the manuscript while searching for information about Cristina Peri Rossi in the Fundación Juan March archives. The novel, which criticizes religious schools, has remained unpublished and forgotten for decades. The discovery sheds new light on Moix's work and the circumstances that led to its suppression. The novel's fate highlights the influence of academic gatekeeping in the Spanish literary world of the 1970s. The manuscript's recovery offers an opportunity to reassess Moix's oeuvre and the cultural context of the period.