Joan Perucho (Barcelona, 1920-2003) was a poet, novelist, columnist, art critic and one of the most translated Spanish authors. He began his career as a writer in Spanish, although the bulk of his work was written in Catalan.

De lo maravilloso y lo real is a thematic anthology that brings together a wide selection of legends and magic stories published during the author’s lifetime. Perucho's extensive work denotes a prodigious accumulation of knowledge that leads to a secret world of alchemy, perfume, eroticism, gastronomy, botany, medieval and chivalric stories, the occult, the lives of saints, encyclopaedism or renewed mythology.

Mercedes Monmany (Barcelona, 1957) is the author of this anthology and of the prologue to this edition. A literary critic and essayist, she has collaborated with the leading literary magazines and supplements and belongs to various editorial boards of cultural publications.