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Lord of All the Dead: A Nonfiction Novel

Lord of All the Dead: A Nonfiction Novel

Current price: $16.95
Publication Date: December 1st, 2020
Publisher:
Vintage
ISBN:
9780525562504
Pages:
288

Description

A deeply personal work of historical interrogation from the acclaimed author of Outlaws. Javier Cercas, “the bard of [the] movement for the recovery of Spain’s suppressed memory” (The New York Times Book Review), unpacks the legacy of the Spanish Civil War by way of his own family’s history.

Growing up, Cercas was inculcated with the legend of his beloved great-uncle, Manuel Mena, who died at nineteen in the bloodiest battle of the Spanish Civil War—while fighting for Franco. Who was this young man? A fascist hero whose memory is now an embarrassment or a committed idealist who happened to fall on the wrong side of history? In Lord of All the Dead, Cercas pieces together the life of his enigmatic relative and in so doing tells the story of an entire generation. Combining intimate family history, investigative scholarship, personal confession, and a novelist’s imagination, Cercas has crafted a transcendent portrait of a country’s indelible scars, a book about heroism, death, the persistence of the past, and the meaning of an individual life against the tapestry of history.

About the Author

Javier Cercas was born in Spain in 1962. He is a novelist and columnist, and he has received numerous international awards. His books include Soldiers of Salamis (which has sold more than a million copies worldwide), The Anatomy of a Moment, The Tenant and The Motive, The Speed of Light, and The Impostor. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages. He lives in Barcelona.

Praise for Lord of All the Dead: A Nonfiction Novel

"A powerful work of D.I.Y. history.” —The New Yorker

“There is no one writing in English like this: engaged humanity achieving a hard-won wisdom. It is powerful stuff.” —The Sunday Times (London)

“A book of reportage through which the dead walk with all the vibrancy of the living. . . . A fact-based but also imaginative work that excavates history and places it into the present.” —The Wall Street Journal

“A powerful and strikingly original portrait of a country whose history is a nightmare from which it cannot wake.” —The Times Literary Supplement (London)

“A contribution to healing the wounds that remain open in Spain to this day. . . . Cercas keeps his readers curious to the end.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A brave, persuasive novel.” —El País

“A beautiful, moving story. . . . Cercas is a marvelous writer, and his character studies . . . are masterly. Ultimately, grappling with the enormously nuanced, continuing story of sacrifice, passion, and dishonor allowed for significant forgiveness and release.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A remarkable act of personal history: brave, revelatory, and unflinchingly honest.” —William Boyd

“Cercas’s candid wranglings with how to tell this tale . . . make him a wonderfully warm and wise guide through this sad, small chapter of the Spanish Civil War.” —The Times (London)

“A subversive and disenchanted view of war in general and the Spanish conflict in particular. . . . It can be moving, unexpectedly funny, racy, demotic or deadpan.” —The Spectator

“[A] cleverly crafted memoir. . . . While reflecting on his own life and family, Cercas vividly portrays a complex figure.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“I couldn’t put the book down. . . . Marvelously written. . . . A major achievement, in historical, literary, and moral terms.” —Jay Nordlinger, National Review

“A fascinating, complicated portrait of a young soldier driven to action by the crises of his time and of the present-day relative who seeks to understand him. . . . Cercas employs the storytelling techniques of dramatic literature to confront [an] uncomfortable facet of his family’s and his country’s history. . . . [He] pulls the reader into his investigative journey.” —Booklist

“A magisterial book on the hazardous trajectory of one man.” —La Croix