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In this bestselling literary novel Cercas takes the reader on an investigation of historic events to unravel an essential secret about Spain's most uncomfortable past, but most importantly, about the human condition. Rafael Sanchez Mazas, founder and ideologue of the Falange movement, manages to escape from a collective execution. As the Republicans look for him, an anonymous soldier points a gun at him, but lets him get away. He will hide out in the forest until the war ends, but he will always remember the soldier with the strange gaze that did not turn him in. Cercas tries to penetrate the mystery of the enigmatic Sanchez-Mazas, but only to discover that the true meaning of the story is found where least expected, « because one does not find what he looks for, but rather what life gives him.

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Publishers Weekly Review

Spanish writer and journalist Cercas received the prestigious Premio Librero de Narrativa for this historical novel about the failed execution of Rafael S nchez Mazas, one of the intellectual architects of Spanish fascism. In the novel, a journalist by the name of Javier Cercas investigates how S nchez Mazas escaped a firing squad in 1939 and hid in the woods when the defeat of the Republic was imminent. The journalist also describes S nchez Mazas's fate as a writer and intellectual at a time when the role of fascism was beginning to decline within Franco's government. Even though Cercas does not make a direct reference to Aeschylus's The Persians [available in Spanish in Tragedias, Gredos, 1993 Ed.] about the defeat of Persian soldiers at Salamis in 480 B.C.E. it may well have influenced the novel. Just as Aeschylus laments the fate of the Persian victims, Cercas too grieves for the defeated, in particular for anonymous characters who fought fascism on many fronts, like Antoni Miralles, the loyalist soldier who saved S nchez Mazas's life. The novel, which has already gone through 12 editions in Spain, contains a suspenseful historical investigation and philosophical reflection on the differences between fiction and history. Highly recommended for academic libraries that collect contemporary Spanish historical fiction. Mary Sarko, Madison, WI (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved