INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - A novel of the Spanish Civil War, a modern
classic, and a searing exploration of the unknowability of history, by
the acclaimed author of Outlaws
In the waning days of the Spanish Civil War, an unknown militiaman
discovered a Nationalist prisoner who had fled a firing squad and taken
refuge in the forest. But instead of killing him, the soldier simply
turned and walked away. The prisoner, Rafael Sánchez Mazas--writer,
fascist, and founder of the Spanish Falange--went on to become a
national hero and ultimately a minister in Franco's first government.
The soldier disappeared into history. Sixty years later, Javier
Cercas--or at least, a character who shares his name--sifts through the
evidence to establish what really happened that day. Who was the
soldier? Why didn't he shoot? And who was the true hero in the story?
Every answer yields another question in this powerful and elegantly
constructed novel about truth, memory, and war.