The book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Genetic Programming, Euro GP 2014, held in Grenada, Spain, in April 2014 co-located with the Evo*2014 events, Evo BIO, Evo COP, Evo MUSART and Evo Applications. The 15 revised full papers presented together with 5 poster papers were carefully reviewed and selected form 40 submissions. The wide range of topics in this volume reflects the current state of research in the field. Thus, we see topics as diverse as search-based software engineering, image analysis, dynamical systems, evolutionary robotics and operational research to the foundations of search as characterized through semantic variation operators.

""I did a lot of bad things, but when I was before the painter I murmured to myself that I was sorry, that I wished I didn't have to, and I don't know what he thought when our eyes met, a moist blaze in the night, but I want to believe he understood, he saw that I was doing it to save him torment. Without further ado, without moving from where I was, I put the pistol to his temple and blew off his head. And then I remembered the pencil. The pencil he carried behind his ear. This pencil...""Set in the dark days of the Spanish Civil War, "Qalam an-najjar" charts the linked destinies of Dr Daniel Da Barca, the Republican who, like his Biblical namesake, cheats death in Franco's prisons, and Herbal, the illiterate Falangist and Da Barca's shadow and tail, and of the unnamed painter with the carpenter's pencil, the man who unites them in life and death. Marisa Mallo, loved by both Da Barca and Herbal; Pepe Sanchez, the bolero singer; "Genghis Khan," the wrestler; Dombod+n the Kid, the innocent; Mother Izarne, the nun. All are bound by the events of the Civil War-the artists and the peasants alike-and all are rendered, in Rivas's skillful hand, with the power of the carpenter's pencil, a pencil that draws both the measured line and the artist's fanciful vision.

For Manuel Rivas, words are the most sensitive of creatures. In the same way that frogs or glow-worms are the first to manifest signs of pollution in the natural environment, words suffer as a result of corruption in the socio-political sphere. In his work as journalist, writer of fiction, poetry or essays, he is consistent in his role as custodian of all sensitive creatures; his writings document historical damage and alert us to potential future harm to our natural, linguistic and political eco-systems. "Rivas is, without doubt, the most important figure (and the best known) in contemporary Galician literature [...]. His fictions bear the tone of an oral tale." -Alberto Manguel "Manuel Rivas is an important storyteller because he is sensitive and has an incredible ear, which, in his fiction, is allied to great integrity." -John Berger "Rivas is an indisputable classic" -The Scotsman "An author who knows how to introduce poetry, not only in his phrasing, but also in his way of seeing the world." - Raphaelle Rerolle, Le Monde

Many readers outside Spain do not know that the acclaimed novelist, Manuel Rivas, is a significant poet in his homeland, writing in his native Galician. This volume redresses the balance, offering a bilingual edition of his 2009 collection A desaparicion da neve, which, in an unusal move, was published in four national languages under one set of covers-Galician, Castilian, Catalan and Basque.

It is the summer of 1936, the early months of the agonising civil war that engulfs Spain and shakes the rest of the world. In a prison in the pilgrim city of Santiago de Compostela, an artist sketches the famous porch of the cathedral, the Pórtico da Gloria. He uses a carpenter's pencil. But instead of reproducing the sculptured faces of the prophets and elders, he draws the faces of his fellow Republican prisoners.

Many years later in post-Franco Spain, a survivor of that period, Doctor Daniel da Barca, returns from exile to his native Galicia, and the threads of past memories begin to be woven together. This poetic and moving novel conveys the horror and savagery of the tragedy that divided Spain, and the experiences of the men and women who lived through ti. Yet in the process, it also relates one of the most beautiful love stories imaginable.