Atl (536 pages) is a story set in an imaginary future five hundred years from now, after a Final War in which most of the world’s inhabitants have been destroyed, leaving only an isolated community on the island of Atl, ruled by a central government that attempts to control and influence every aspect of their lives, encouraging the pursuit of happiness and dispelling any notions of the past or history.

An orator speaks on a screen belonging to the state television and explains how in the beginning was Al. Other screens belonging to state and private televisions are also available for the spectator to view. The orator explains how the Earth is the centre of the world, which has seven cardinal spheres. Inside the Earth are certain metals; on its surface, the vast ocean, the only piece of land being Atl. When the land is threatened by natural disasters, the Divine Lady comes and restores order. The people are governed by the Central Circle. There are no longer wars, since everything has been organized into a Universal Single State. It is the year 147 of Mun. There is a short monologue by someone who struggles to hold on to words and to remember their name.

Dr Heriberto is employed at the State Centre for Research into the Development of Science and Industry. He is responsible for investigating the possibilities of memory causing physical movement and, for this purpose, has been entrusted with a state orphan, an ‘adoptstate’, a young man in his twenties known simply as AN, on whom they are conducting experiments. He is on his way home from work and has a conversation with his wife, Zaradia, who works in the port of Medburg, one of the two capitals of Atl, and who informs him that Doctormax Leonardio, the person responsible for setting up a National History Museum in Medburg, is waiting to see him. There is another short monologue, in which a man remembers words like ‘car’ and ‘garage’, finds himself without a Personal Identification Code and is pursued by wolves and small planes.

Leonardio has come to ask Heriberto to give his nephew, Anaxim, a job in his research team. Their line of research into the subject AN is very prestigious, despite the fact that Heriberto feels under pressure for results, and Anaxim is keen to join them. Heriberto feels under an obligation to Leonardio, who helped his wife get her job in the port of Medburg. We are introduced to more aspects of life on Atl: 88% of public and private activities are controlled by a supercomputer, Alom; the number of children, and who can have them, is decided by the central government; screens are everywhere, providing information and entertainment; social sex is encouraged. In another short monologue, a man explains how the two dominant nations on earth built a Tower of Good, which was razed by the poor nations. This led to a war in which the poor were finally defeated and all nations were subsumed into a Single State in the year 2400 of the ancients under the leadership of President Mun. The man senses this Tower of Good has something to do with his mission.

Leonardio visits the Department for the Cataloguing and Registration of Historical Artefacts, where he wishes to register a recently unearthed dagger. The photomagnetic convulsor is unable to recognize the material the dagger is made from. Leonardio stops off at a public phone booth to call Doctormax Ulimenia, who oversees the project Heriberto is working on, to ask her to attend a meeting. Before the meeting, which is ostensibly to decide on the best location for the future History Museum, the members of the Founding Committee call on the Divine Lady to be present and then adjourn to a side room where they cannot be seen. While pretending to be speaking about the location of the museum, they practise writing on sheets and pass each other secret messages, in one of which Leonardio asks Ulimenia to allow Heriberto to suspend his research, but not to wake the subject AN from his semi-soporific state. When presenting the dagger, he claims to have discovered a king’s sceptre. The man from the monologue is again pursued by small planes that prevent him from staying in a hotel room and reading the contents of a folded piece of paper.

Heriberto is frustrated by the lack of progress with AN. The subject does not respond to the team’s wishes, but flees into his own memory, the only neural option he has left. Images from the subject’s memory appear on screens: wolves, which are supposed to have been extinct for several hundred years, but are said to live on in the continent’s interior; a bright light. The new recruit, Anaxim, suggests a way to mould the patient’s will and obtain further images. The man from the monologue approaches the remains of the Tower and discovers some kind of stone factory inside before being chased off by the planes.

A group of worshippers calls on the prophet Hipercang, the name of an asteroid threatening the planet, and sacrifices a cockerel with a stone dagger. Inside the factory, the man from the monologue discovers hundreds of boxes and bundles of paper being transported by workers. He is at a loss to explain what is going on. The planes try to follow him, and a group of children he glimpsed playing outside follow him into the stone building. Leonardio and his nephew have lunch in a restaurant where their conversation cannot be overheard. Leonardio explains that the man in the experiment, AN, is searching for something in the past and Leonardio is going to help him by providing new coordinates. He reveals what is in his briefcase, a sheaf of papers with writing on them. He then explains how books were banned by the central government in favour of moving letters, because books were an individual creation and could foment unrest and enable the transmission of knowledge. This is how Leonardio and his nephew will communicate, in writing, despite the fact it is forbidden. He then invites Anaxim to sit on the Founding Committee of the museum. In the factory, the group of children, angelic creatures, offer the man an overall he can wear to pass unnoticed. He again hears the howling of wolves and glimpses their bloody jaws.

Heriberto begins to feel uncomfortable with the experiment they are conducting on AN. He senses that the central government has other motives than simply controlling a computer with a person’s thoughts. He longs to have more freedom, to be able to sail on a boat with no fixed direction. His wife, Zaradia, recommends they have sex later on that night to take his mind off things. In the factory, the man from the monologue discovers that the boxes contain books, which are being taken to be incinerated. Leonardio entertains a female colonel in his office and plays her a tape of Heriberto and Zaradia’s conversation. The colonel asks if he would like her to arrest Heriberto for his unorthodox comments, but Leonardio says to wait. In the factory, some workmen drop a box and are surprised to see there are books inside. They didn’t know what they were burning. An official comes over and confiscates some of the books, which he stores in an underground room covered in bookshelves. The man from the monologue follows him and, when he leaves, sits down to read some of the books. At a meeting of the Scientific Council, Heriberto asks for the experiment with AN to be suspended and the subject to be brought back to consciousness because he is afraid the subject is not responding to their wishes and may decide to opt not to return. Ulimenia agrees to allow the experiment to be suspended for fourteen days, during which the subject must be kept in a semi-soporific state. This will enable Leonardio to introduce new coordinates and to redirect the patient’s search. The man from the monologue continues to read, aware that he only has a handful of books, but this is enough to awaken his thirst for knowledge.

Heriberto oversees the suspension of the experiment. He then receives the visit of an engineer from the State Centre for the Maintenance of Balance, Ludomir, who informs him that he is right in his suspicions about the real purpose of the experiment, which is to control people’s memories. He also reveals that Anaxim returns to the laboratory after hours and manipulates aspects of the experiment. The man from the monologue is about to take hold of an old parchment in a crystal urn when he feels that he is leaving and the room with the books is fading, presumably as a result of the experiment being suspended. Eleven members of the Founding Committee, including Leonardio and Anaxim, visit the archipelago Edenia with its eight islands, a sexual paradise for those with money. At one of the bars, they are met by a man in a mask who invites them to go to a mysterious ninth island, an underwater city, where groups of children with no Personal Identification Code and speaking an unintelligible language that is not Atlian are raped and fed to wild animals in the Virgin Forest. Leonardio and the others are appalled, but the general Prógulo, who has taken them there so he can see their reaction, gives them an amnesic drug in their tea so they won’t remember. Only Leonardio spits out the tea and manages to retain a certain memory of the night’s events. The man from the monologue remembers his father, a carpenter, and his mother, a weaver. He offered himself for the experiment so that he could earn enough money to buy some fields and become a farmer. He wonders whether he has a friend in the research team who will help him. He is able to observe the scientists, although they do not realize this.

With the help of Ludomir, Heriberto has obtained a programme that will enable him to communicate with the subject AN. There is a meeting about the meteorite threatening the planet, although Heriberto doubts it is a meteorite at all. Anaxim informs Heriberto that he has worked on some new coordinates for when they send AN on another journey into the past. Heriberto uses the new software to send AN a message. The man from the monologue answers Heriberto’s message, explaining that there was a war in the second half of the twenty-first century which left a poisonous gas in the air. Only Atl escaped this contamination. A new society was created with a central government, in which the sole objective was to be happy and not to seek knowledge. For this reason, the central computer, Alom, set about eradicating history. A member of the central government meets with Leonardio to discuss the meteorite, which is an invention on the part of Alom to discredit the sect that worships Hipercang (which Leonardio himself has infiltrated as high priest). The idea is to destroy the simulated meteorite as it approaches earth. The members of the sect believe the meteorite is a ship carrying 81 king-gods coming to set up a more just society without the ruling elite. The man from the monologue explains that, after the Final War, the rulers of Atl visited the other continents on earth for minerals and to abduct children for their sexual fantasies, but were considered gods by the inhabitants of these continents, who had gone back to a life of living in caves. Anaxim travels with a member of the Founding Committee, Major Friégoro, to visit a forge outside Medburg. Once there, in the village, the major attempts to rape Anaxim, who runs to their aircraft and takes off in the direction of the Sacred Mountain, on the other side of which he spots a large factory complex before passing the maximum altitude allowed of 1,000 metres and being shot down by a missile. The man from the monologue enters a village, where there is a monastery and, in the distance, a view of the Sacred Mountain.

At work, Zaradia embraces a female work colleague, Naidamni, and promises to divorce her husband so they can be together. The man from the monologue continues to investigate the monastery building, while being pursued by wolves and planes. Heriberto has been arrested and interrogated by the female colonel. He plans to continue to communicate with the subject AN and then to make the project fail and wake the subject up. He does not want to help the central government have access to people’s thoughts. Zaradia, meanwhile, has complete confidence in the central government’s intentions, which she understands to be the welfare of all. The man from the monologue enters a room where monks copy books and is interrupted by a voice that calls out his name, Rucelso. Heriberto receives the visit of a female guard, Isendra, and with kisses and hugs they declare their love for one another. The man from the monologue is welcomed back by the other monks, who ask him where he has been this time and take him to the refectory to eat. In the dream, he is a copyist. Three software engineers change the coordinates for the missile that is to be launched against the meteorite Hipercang. Once outside, they remove the chips with their Personal Identification Codes from inside the palms of their hands. Rucelso eats in the monastery refectory. His sporadic absences are well known and, after each one, he is in the habit of telling the abbot, Nicolaus, where he has been.

Heriberto and Isendra organize a secret rendezvous in the provincial town where Isendra grew up. They enter a forbidden forest and discover a city full of old people who are either drunk or drugged. They come across Arquibaldo, the creator of Alom. They are then arrested by General Prógulo, who before administering an amnesic drug explains that this is the City of the Dead, where Alom has sent all those who previously conditioned its existence as part of the ruling elite in order to have the freedom to make its own decisions. Abbot Nicolaus explains to Rucelso how he disappears for days at a time, which can be years in the life of the person he becomes. On a ski trip, Heriberto’s daughter is injured. Heriberto is convinced this is a warning because of his illicit behaviour and tries to persuade Zaradia to abandon Atl on a ship. Zaradia consults the Divine Lady and seeks her advice. In the monastery, Rucelso writes that he is Hipercang. He loses consciousness and, when he comes to, the abbot is kneeling before him, addressing him as ‘Lord’. Heriberto arranges with Ludomir to escape on a ship. He writes a message to the subject AN, saying he will take him with them. Isendra appears and asks him to wait for a week before waking the subject. Heriberto is then arrested for conspiracy against the State. Isendra escapes and contacts a member of the Founding Committee, Andomidaro, saying they must put their alternative plan into action. Abbot Nicolaus informs Rucelso that he is a reincarnation of Hipercang and they are his worshippers, members of the Order of the Cosmic Triangle.

Leonardio holds another meeting with the woman from the central government, the hierarch Onaixire, who accuses him of being behind the sabotage of the missile that was to be launched against the meteorite. She is about to have him thrown to his death when he pulls out a dagger and manages to escape, having forced Onaixire to swallow his Personal Identification Code. Rucelso carries on writing, while the abbot explains they are casting gold statues of the 81 king-gods and storing them under the Sacred Mountain. Heriberto is rescued from prison by Isendra, who is a member of the Order of the Cosmic Triangle. In the monastery, Rucelso finishes transcribing the prophecy of Hipercang, which he and the abbot deposit in a crystal urn in a room of books with a secret entrance. Outside the city, Heriberto and Isendra meet up with Leonardio, who has brought the subject AN. Leonardio asks Heriberto to wake him up, which he does, and then informs him that AN is really Cristémonos, the final incarnation of Hipercang, the saint-mediator. They head for the Sacred Mountain, where they await the arrival of the meteorite carrying the 81 king-gods. Rucelso hears a call from outside the monastery, puts down his pen and leaves the building.

On the way to the Sacred Mountain, Leonardio invites Heriberto to become an initiate and to merge with the 81 king-gods when they land on the meteorite. They will then create a more just society. For this to happen, they must sacrifice Cristémonos, who is really an artificial human created by Alom. Heriberto’s ex-boss, Ulimenia, then explains that Leonardio convinced the central government to create a false meteorite as a show of power, but that in fact the false meteorite is real. It will not be shot down, however, since they have changed the bomb’s coordinates. Heriberto thinks they are all barking mad and wonders how he can escape. Cristémonos recognizes in Heriberto the abbot Nicolaus and realizes he is about to be sacrificed. He leads them to the room with the books in the factory-monastery, where they retrieve the ancient prophecy Rucelso finished writing in the monastery, and then they climb to the top of the Sacred Mountain, where the 81 gold statues are, to await the arrival of the king-gods. In an attempt to save Cristémonos, Heriberto knocks Leonardio unconscious and dresses him up as the sacrifice in Cristémonos’ place. He then rushes down the mountain with Cristémonos, only to discover that hundreds of state policemen, or glaus, have come to arrest the members of the Order of the Cosmic Triangle. When he tries to escape, he is followed by security forces and realizes that Cristémonos’ Personal Identification Code has been activated so that Alom can know where he is. Cristémonos asks his father, Alom, to send the security forces away. Heriberto and Cristémonos meet up with Zaradia, Ludomir and others in the port. As they leave Atl on a ship, the bomb that was meant to destroy the meteorite lands on the Central Circle instead, destroying Alom. Meanwhile, Leonardio is sacrificed on the Sacred Mountain in place of Cristémonos, the gold statues melt in the heat of the meteorite, which passes on by and disappears over the horizon. The heat of the meteorite, an invention of Alom, causes the nuclear plants that provide electricity to explode and the island of Atl to sink into the sea. Heriberto and the others, on board the ship, manage to survive the tidal wave and set about discussing what a new world will be like and how people in the future will want to locate the lost world of Atl.

This is an extraordinarily well-detailed account of a society governed by a supercomputer, Alom, that seeks people’s happiness as long as they abide by the rules and punishes those that do not. Alongside this is a superstitious sect that awaits the arrival of 81 king-gods on board a meteorite-transporter. In the end, the only ones to survive are a band of people who will have to confront the future relying on their ideas and goodwill. Atl was awarded the prestigious Blanco Amor Prize for a long novel written in the Galician language in 2011.

Synopsis © Jonathan Dunne