Gonzalo Torrente Ballester was recognized as a 'national treasure' of Spain during his lifetime. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Miguel de Cervantes Prize.

'Don Juan' is a hoax novel. It contains echoes of Goethe's Faust, Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, Fowles's The Magus, and variations on the Don Juan legend.

Never talk to strangers. Especially when they introduce themselves as Don Juan's servant, Leporello, and hint at their diabolical origins. From that moment on, the hero's consciousness balances between the 20th and 17th centuries. And all because of Don Juan. A girl blinded by love shoots him, but the famous seducer is cursed; he cannot die. However, his soul can periodically inhabit the hero. Under the influence of obsession, a novel within a novel is born, and the plot splits into two levels of reality. On one, the hero tries to escape the trap and win the girl enchanted by Don Juan. On the second, Don Juan recounts how he nearly became a monk and why he killed the Commander.