Synopses & Reviews
Spain's best-selling book of the year-an award-winning, wholly original and absorbing work of fiction by a modern master, at whose heart lies an investigation into the nature of historical truth.
In the final moments of the Spanish Civil War, fifty prominent Nationalist prisoners face a firing squad. Among them is Rafael Sánchez Mazas-writer, fascist, and founder of the Spanish Falange. As the machine guns begin to fire, Sánchez Mazas escapes into the forest. When a militiaman discovers his hiding place, Sánchez Mazas faces death for the second time that day. But the unknown soldier simply turns and walks away. Sánchez Mazas becomes a national hero and ultimately a minister in Franco's first government. The soldier disappears into history.
Sixty years later, as Cercas sifts through the evidence to establish what really happened, he realizes that the true hero may not be the one who was celebrated, but, rather, the soldier who chose not to shoot. Who was he? Why did he spare Sánchez Mazas? Every answer Cercas uncovers leads to another question in this powerful and elegantly constructed novel about truth, memory, and war.
Javier Cercas was born in 1962. He is a novelist, short-story writer and essayist, whose books include El móvil (The Motive, 1987, revised 2003), El inquilino (The Tenant, 1989), El vientre de la ballena (The Belly of the Whale, 1997) and Relatos reales (True Tales, 2000). In the 1980s he taught for two years at the University of Illinois, and since 1989 has been a lecturer in Spanish Literature at the University of Gerona. Soldiers of Salamis is being published in fifteen languages, and the film adaptation was released in 2003.
Anne McLean has translated Latin American and Spanish novels, short stories, memoirs and other writings by authors including Carmen Martín Gaite, Orlando González Esteva, Julio Cortázar, Paula Varsavsky, Ignacio Padilla and Luis Sepúlveda.
In the final moments of the Spanish Civil War, as the remnants of the Republican army retreat north into exile, fifty prominent Nationalist prisoners are taken out to be shot. Among them is Rafael Sánchez Mazaswriter, fascist and founder of the Spanish Falange.
As the machine guns begin to fire, Sánchez Mazas takes advantage of the commotion and escapes into the forest. When his hiding place is discovered by a militiaman, he faces death for the second time that day. But the unknown soldier simply looks him in the eye, turns and walks away. The writer becomes a national hero and ultimately a minister in Franco's first government. The soldier disappears into history.
As Cercas sifts through the evidence to establish what really happened, he realizes that the hero of his story may not be Sánchez Mazas at all, but the soldier who chose not to shoot him. Who was he? Why did he spare him? Might he still be alive?
In this elegantly constructed novel, told with self-deprecating, melancholy humor, Javier Cercas has created an original work of literaturea "true tale" that is at once an investigation of historical truth, an essay on heroism and a celebration of the power of fiction.
"The book is magnificent, in fact, one of the best I've read in a long time, deserving of innumerable readers."Mario Vargas Llosa
"With irresistible directness and delicacy, Javier Cercas engages in a quick-witted, tender quest for truth and the possibility of reconciliation in history, in our everyday liveswhich happens to be the theme of most great European fiction. He has a fascinating tale to tell, which happens (mostly) to be true. He has written a marvelous novel."Susan Sontag
"He has succeeded, with one perfectly crafted book, in single-handedly redeeming the epic genre."Alberto Manguel
"Cercas's U.S. debut is a strange and intriguing amalgam of epic, elegy, and mystery about a journalist's efforts to uncover the story behind a soldier's quasi-miraculous escape from firing squad in the Spanish Civil War . . . Cercas's lyric intensity becomes quite moving (especially toward the end) in a beautiful account of loss and reconciliation."Kirkus Reviews
"This is a truly wonderful, magnificent novel. It is understanding, intelligent, compassionate. This is a novel that will last, one of the few great books to have been made out of the madness of the mid-20th century."The Scotsman
"Very few books have the power to alter received opinion, but this marvelous book set during and after the Spanish Civil War, in which verifiable and imaginative truth are combined to unusual effect, may well be one."The Sunday Telegraph
"Cercas has written a classic novelthough a consistently droll and high-spirited oneabout the filtration of war's tragedies through memory and myth . . . Soldiers of Salamis is a fairly short novel, yet it feels, not long, but large: spacious, generous, nuanced."The Independent
"Above all, it demonstrates how eloquent and exciting fiction is still capable of being."The Irish Times
Review
"This riveting novel, a huge best seller in Cercas's native Spain (it subsequently has been translated into fifteen languages and has won numerous literary prizes in Europe and Latin America), tells a true tale with such exquisite postmodern quirkiness and conviction that one never knows what is real and what is invented by a novelist named Cercas in his struggle to write a novel about the messy aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. The true anecdote flows from the execution of Rafael Sánchez Mazas, the most important theorist of fascist Spain in the 1930s, who was captured by Republican forces outside of Barcelona in 1939 and executed along with other prisoners. But in the confusion of the shooting, Sánchez Mazas managed to escape and hide in the dense woods for a time before being caught by a young soldier who, at the moment he cocked his rifle to shoot one of the Republican's most hated enemies, somehow managed to shout There's nobody over here in response to his sergeant's query. He turned and walked away, allowing Sánchez Mazas eventually to walk to freedom and, it is clearly remembered, to life as one of Franco's supporters. Cercas, the fictional novelist, wonders if that young soldier might still be alive today, and he begins a twisted intellectual journey to find an answer to that possibility and to write, finally, his novel. Is Miralles, the scarred veteran living in exile in an old-age home in Dijon, France, that young man? Clues build along with suspicion and tension, and Cercas's meditations on history, memory, anonymity, and heroism, combined with the unforgettable characters he encounters (or invents) along the way, lend early canonical status to this book. Not without reason has Mario Vargas Llosa called it one of the best books he's read in a long time." Reviewed by David T. Gies, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Review
"This book is magnificent...one of the best I've read in a long time." Mario Vargas Llosa, El Pais
Review
"Cercas has succeeded, with one perfectly crafted book, in single-handedly redeeming the epic genre." Alberto Manguel
Review
"This book is magnificent...one of the best Ive read in a long time."
Review
"This book is magnificent...one of the best I've read in a long time."-Mario Vargas Llosa,
El Pais"With irresistible directness and delicacy, Javier Cercas engages in a quick-witted, tender quest for truth and the possibility of reconciliation in history, in our everyday lives - which happens to be the theme of most great European fiction. He has a fascinating tale to tell, which happens (mostly) to be true. He has written a marvelous novel."-Susan Sontag
"Cercas has succeeded, with one perfectly crafted book, in single-handedly redeeming the epic genre."-Alberto Manguel
Review
"Gripping and also a tear-jerker in the best sense of the word...Soldiers of Salamis strikes a chord in any country or individual with ghosts to face." Los Angeles Times
Review
"A haunting and provocative book about history, memory, and the elusive nature of heroism...funny, moving, and surprising." Washington Post
Review
"Cercas unravels a breathtaking 'true story' that encompasses lessons of war and writing, historic truth and heroism." Time Out New York
Review
"A remarkable resource...Cercas perfectly captures the uncanny ways in which a story evolves." Houston Chronicle
Review
"A beautiful account of loss and reconciliation." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Spain's best-selling book of the year-an award-winning, wholly original and absorbing work of fiction by a modern master, at whose heart lies an investigation into the nature of historical truth.
In the final moments of the Spanish Civil War, fifty prominent Nationalist prisoners face a firing squad. Among them is Rafael Sánchez Mazas-writer, fascist, and founder of the Spanish Falange. As the machine guns begin to fire, Sánchez Mazas escapes into the forest. When a militiaman discovers his hiding place, Sánchez Mazas faces death for the second time that day. But the unknown soldier simply turns and walks away. Sánchez Mazas becomes a national hero and ultimately a minister in Franco's first government. The soldier disappears into history.
Sixty years later, as Cercas sifts through the evidence to establish what really happened, he realizes that the true hero may not be the one who was celebrated, but, rather, the soldier who chose not to shoot. Who was he? Why did he spare Sánchez Mazas? Every answer Cercas uncovers leads to another question in this powerful and elegantly constructed novel about truth, memory, and war.
Synopsis
In the final moments of the Spanish Civil War, a writer and founding member of Franco's Fascist Party is about to be shot, and yet miraculously escapes into the forest. When his hiding place is discovered, he faces death for the second time that day-but is spared, this time by a lone Republican soldier. The writer becomes a national hero and a member of Franco's first government, while the soldier is forgotten. Sixty years later, Cercas's novel peels back the layers of truth and propaganda in order to discover who the real hero was. Winner of the Independent Prize in Foreign Fiction, Soldiers of Salamis is a wholly original work of fiction by a modern master.
About the Author
Javier Cercas was born in 1962. He is a novelist, short-story writer, and essayist. He has taught at the University of Illinois and since 1989 has been a lecturer at the University of Gerona in Spain.
Soldiers of Salamis is his first book to be published in the United States. It has already been published in fifteen languages around the world, and the film adaptation by David Trueba debuted at Cannes in May 2003.