The novel was written during the author's stay in the house of her friend Carme Manrubia, in Romanyà de la Selva.
[2] According to the explanation of the author in the prologue to the book, the original title of the book was supposed to be: El soldat i les roses (The soldier and the roses) and the name of the protagonist of the novel was to be Manuel.
[3] During the Spanish civil war, Adrià Guinart, a fifteen-year-old boy, tired of his lack of life experience and his yearning for freedom, decides to go to the front with his childhood friend.
During the war, Adrià's personality is in a real process of learning about human nature.
"I left home so that I could encounter new villages, meet people, and because I was tired of my mother.