Books by Javier Cercas

The Impostor: A True Story

by Javier Cercas

Nominated for the Man Booker International Prize

For decades, Enric Marco was revered as a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, a crusader for justice, and a Holocaust survivor. But in May 2005, at the height of his renown, he was exposed as a fraud: Marco was never in a Nazi concentration camp. And perhaps the rest of his past was fabricated, too, a combination of his delusions of grandeur and his compulsive lying. In this hypnotic narrative, which combines fiction and nonfiction, detective story and war story, biography and autobiography, Javier Cercas sets out to unravel Marco’s enigma. With both profound compassion and lacerating honesty, Cercas probes one man’s gigantic lie to explore the deepest, most flawed parts of our humanity.

The Impostor: A True Story

by Javier Cercas

MAN BOOKER PRIZE NOMINEE • From the acclaimed author of Outlaws • For decades, Enric Marco was revered as a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, a crusader for justice, and a Holocaust survivor. But in May 2005, at the height of his renown, he was exposed as a fraud.

Marco was never in a Nazi concentration camp. And perhaps the rest of his past was fabricated, too, a combination of his delusions of grandeur and his compulsive lying. In this hypnotic narrative, which combines fiction and nonfiction, detective story and war story, biography and autobiography, Javier Cercas sets out to unravel Marco’s enigma. With both profound compassion and lacerating honesty, Cercas probes one man’s gigantic lie to explore the deepest, most flawed parts of our humanity.

Soldiers of Salamis: A Novel

by Javier Cercas

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.

Soldiers of Salamis: A Novel

by Javier Cercas

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.

Independencia: Terra Alta 2 (Andanzas) (Spanish Edition)

by Javier Cercas

¿Cómo enfrentarse a quienes manejan el poder en las sombras? ¿Cómo vengarse de quienes más daño te han hecho? Vuelve Melchor Marín. Y vuelve a Barcelona, donde es reclamado para investigar un caso vidrioso: están chantajeando con un vídeo sexual a la alcaldesa de la ciudad. Cargado con su pesar por no haber encontrado a los asesinos de su madre, pero también con su inflexible sentido de la justicia y su rocosa integridad moral, Melchor debe desmontar una extorsión que no se sabe si persigue el simple beneficio económico o la desestabilización política, y, para hacerlo, se adentra en los círculos del poder, un lugar donde reinan el cinismo, la ambición sin escrúpulos y la brutalidad corrupta. Por ahí, esta novela absorbente y salvaje, poblada de una pléyade de personajes memorables, se convierte en un retrato demoledor de la élite político económica barcelonesa, pero sobre todo en un furioso alegato contra la tiranía de los dueños del dinero y los amos del mundo. Un furioso alegato contra la tiranía de los dueños del dinero y los amos del mundo.

Henri Cartier-Bresson: Le Grand Jeu

by Annie Leibovitz, Wim Wenders, Javier Cercas, Sylvie Aubenas, François Pinault

Cartier-Bresson by Cartier-Bresson: the photographer’s “master set” survey of his career, presented for the first time alongside selections by Annie Leibovitz, Wim Wenders and others
In the early 1970s, at the request of his friends and collectors John and Dominique Menil, Henri Cartier-Bresson went through the thousands of prints in his archives with the idea of choosing the most important and significant works of his career. He picked 385 photographs, which were printed in a format of 12 x 16 inches at his most trusted laboratory in Paris between 1972 and 1973, in five copies each. This so-called “Master Set” has never before been published in its entirety.

Now, photographer Annie Leibovitz, film director Wim Wenders, writer Javier Cercas, chief curator of the Department of Prints and Photographs at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France Sylvie Aubenas and collector François Pinault have been invited to each choose roughly 50 pictures from this Master Set. Through their selection, each of them shares a personal vision of the work of this great artist.

Henri Cartier-Bresson: Le Grand Jeu is divided into two parts: the first presents the personal choice of each of the curators, accompanied by a text written for the occasion; the second presents the whole of the Master Set as it was assembled by Cartier-Bresson. This unprecedented volume thus constitutes the most personal, and indeed the most authoritative, panorama of his oeuvre yet published.

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) was born in Chantelou-en-Brie, France. He initially studied painting and began photographing in the 1930s. Cartier-Bresson cofounded Magnum in 1947. In the late 1960s he returned to his original passion, drawing. In 2003 Cartier-Bresson established the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris, one year before his death.

Soldados de Salamina

by Javier Cercas

Nueva edición de Soldados de Salamina, novela imprescindible del siglo XXI, revisada a fondo por el autor y rematada por un esclarecedor epílogo escrito por él mismo.

A finales de enero de 1939, apenas dos meses antes del final de la guerra civil, un grupo de prisioneros franquistas es fusilado cerca la frontera francesa por soldados republicanos que huyen hacia el exilio. Entre esos prisioneros se halla Rafael Sánchez Mazas, fundador e ideólogo de la Falange, poeta y futuro ministro de Franco, quien consigue milagrosamente escapar y ocultarse en el bosque mientras los republicanos lo persiguen; hasta que un soldado lo descubre, lo encañona y, mirándolo a los ojos, le perdona la vida.

Sesenta años más tarde, un novelista fracasado descubre por azar este enterrado episodio bélico y, fascinado por él, emprende una investigación para aclarar sus circunstancias y desentrañar su significado. ¿Quién era de verdad Rafael Sánchez Mazas? ¿Cuál fue su verdadera peripecia de guerra? ¿Quién fue el soldado que le dejó escapar? ¿Y por qué lo hizo? ¿Qué secreto escondía su mirada?

Novela revolucionaria y deslumbrante, Soldados de Salamina cosechó un extraordinario éxito de crítica y público y catapultó la carrera de uno de los novelistas más prestigiosos de la actual narrativa española. Desde entonces no ha dejado de leerse en todo el mundo con creciente admiración y catorce años más tarde sigue siendo, como afirmó Mario Vargas Llosa, «una de las grandes novelas de nuestro tiempo».

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

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 soldier.

The POW 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. Elegantly constructed and told with self-deprecating, melancholy humor, Soldiers of Salamis is a wholly original work of literature by a modern master.

El monarca de las sombras

by Javier Cercas

Más de quince años después de la publicación de Soldados de Salamina, Javier Cercas regresa a la Guerra Civil con una novela más íntima y personal, que indaga en el pasado más incómodo de su familia.Ninguna familia escapa a su herencia. Sobre los vencedores y los vencidos, y los secretos que todos callamos.

Esta es la novela que Javier Cercas se había estado preparando para escribir desde que quiso ser novelista.O desde antes.

El monarca de las sombras narra la búsqueda del rastro perdido de un muchacho casi anónimo que peleó por una causa injusta y murió en el lado equivocado de la historia.

Se llamaba Manuel Mena y en 1936, al estallar la guerra civil, se incorporó al ejército de Franco; dos años después murió combatiendo en la batalla del Ebro, y durante décadas se convirtió en el héroe oficial de su familia. Era tío abuelo de Javier Cercas, quien siempre se negó a indagar en su historia, hasta que se sintió obligado a hacerlo.

El resultado de esa indagación es una novela absorbente, pletórica de acción, de humor y de emoción, que nos enfrenta a algunos de los temas esenciales de la narrativa de Cercas: la naturaleza radiante, poliédrica y misteriosa del heroísmo, la terca pervivencia de los muertos y la dificultad de hacerse cargo del pasado más incómodo.

Exploración a la vez local y universal, personal y colectiva, novela belicosamente antibelicista, El monarca de las sombras da una vuelta de tuerca inesperada y deslumbrante a la pregunta sobre la herencia de la guerra que Cercas abrió años atrás con Soldados de Salamina.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Over fifteen years after publishing Soldados de Salamina / Soldiers of Salamis, Javier Cercas returns once again to the Spanish Civil War, now with a much more intimate and personal novel that dives deep into his family's darkest past.No family is ever able to escape its past.

This is the novel that Cercas has been preparing to write since he decided to be a writer, or even before then.

El monarca de las sombras / The Monarch of Shadows is about the search for an almost forgotten young man who fought for justice and died on the wrong side of history.

His name was Manuel Mena and he joined Franco's army when the Civil War broke in 1936. He died two years later in the battle of Ebro, and for decades he was the family hero; and was also Javier Cercas' great-uncle.

For a long time Cercas refused to research Mena's story, until he felt compelled to do so. The result of his inquiries is a gripping novel, full of action, humor, and emotion, one that offers recurring themes in Cercas' narrative: heroism's radiant and mysterious nature, the Dead's stubbornness to stay alive, and the struggle to face one's uncomfortable past.

El monarca de las sombras / The Monarch of Shadows gives an unexpected and dazzling twist to the question posed by Cercas years ago in Soldados de Salamina / Soldiers of Salamis, about the legacy left by war.

Outlaws: A Novel

by Javier Cercas

In the late 1970s, after the death of Franco, Spain was in a state of transition. Gangs of juvenile delinquents, called quinquis, swarmed the streets. The most famous of them was Zarco.

In the summer of '78, Zarco's gang rises to infamy. One of his recruits is a middle-class misfit he dubs Gafitas. The sixteen-year-old is dazzled by Zarco, but even more so by the gorgeous Tere, who may or may not be Zarco's girlfriend. Drawn away from his staid summer job, Gafitas becomes involved in a crime spree that quickly escalates from snatching handbags to robbing banks. When a robbery goes wrong, Zarco is caught, and Gafitas returns to his old life. Tere disappears. But their three fates will always be intertwined, and Zarco's polestar persona only grows in prison, celebrated in movies and songs, fueled by his role in riots and breakouts. And after Gafitas becomes a prominent lawyer, Tere shows up to recruit him once again.

Now, Gafitas wants to tell the true story of the notorious gangster. In Outlaws, Javier Cercas surveys, with his usual brio, the porous borders between fact and fiction, right and wrong, proving himself once again one of the most brilliant novelists writing today.

The Anatomy of a Moment: Thirty-Five Minutes in History and Imagination

by Javier Cercas

In February 1981, Spain was still emerging from Franco's shadow, holding a democratic vote for the new prime minister. On the day of the vote in Parliament, while the session was being filmed by TV cameras, a band of right-wing soldiers burst in with automatic weapons, ordering everyone to get down. Only three men defied the order. For thirty-five minutes, as the cameras rolled, they stayed in their seats.

Critically adored novelist Javier Cercas originally set out to write a novel about this pivotal moment, but determined it had already gained an air of myth, or, through the annual broadcast of video clips, had at least acquired the fictional taint of reality television. Cercas turned to nonfiction, and his vivid descriptions of the archival footage frame a narrative that traverses the line between history and art, creating a daring new account of this watershed moment in modern Spanish history.

The Anatomy of a Moment caused a sensation upon its publication in Spain, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. The story will be new to many American readers, but the book stands resolutely on its own as a compelling literary inquest of national myth, personal memory, political spectacle, and reality itself.

Soldados de Salamina / Soldiers of Salamis (Spanish Edition)

by Javier Cercas

Nueva edición de Soldados de Salamina, novela imprescindible del siglo XXI, revisada a fondo por el autor y rematada por un esclarecedor epílogo escrito por él mismo.

A finales de enero de 1939, apenas dos meses antes del final de la guerra civil, un grupo de prisioneros franquistas es fusilado cerca la frontera francesa por soldados republicanos que huyen hacia el exilio. Entre esos prisioneros se halla Rafael Sánchez Mazas, fundador e ideólogo de la Falange, poeta y futuro ministro de Franco, quien consigue milagrosamente escapar y ocultarse en el bosque mientras los republicanos lo persiguen; hasta que un soldado lo descubre, lo encañona y, mirándolo a los ojos, le perdona la vida.

Sesenta años más tarde, un novelista fracasado descubre por azar este enterrado episodio bélico y, fascinado por él, emprende una investigación para aclarar sus circunstancias y desentrañar su significado. ¿Quién era de verdad Rafael Sánchez Mazas? ¿Cuál fue su verdadera peripecia de guerra? ¿Quién fue el soldado que le dejó escapar? ¿Y por qué lo hizo? ¿Qué secreto escondía su mirada?
Novela revolucionaria y deslumbrante, Soldados de Salamina cosechó un extraordinario éxito de crítica y público y catapultó la carrera de uno de los novelistas más prestigiosos de la actual narrativa española. Desde entonces no ha dejado de leerse en todo el mundo con creciente admiración.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

This new edition of Soldiers of Salamis, a fundamental novel of the 21st century, has been thoroughly revised by the author and finished off by an enlightening epilogue written by the author himself.

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.

Lord of All the Dead A Nonfiction Novel

by Javier Cercas

In this deeply personal work of historical interrogation, 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.

Soldiers of Salamis

by Javier Cercas

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.

El monarca de las sombras / Lord of All the Dead (Spanish Edition)

by Javier Cercas

Más de quince años después de la publicación de Soldados de Salamina, Javier Cercas regresa a la guerra civil española con una novela más íntima y personal, que indaga en el pasado más incómodo de su familia.

Esta es la novela que Javier Cercas se había estado preparando para escribir desde que quiso ser novelista. O desde antes.

En ella se narra la búsqueda del rastro perdido de un muchacho casi anónimo que peleó por una causa injusta y murió en el lado equivocado de la historia. Se llamaba Manuel Mena, y en 1936 se incorporó al ejército de Franco; murió en la batalla del Ebro, y durante décadas se convirtió en el héroe oficial de su familia. Era tío abuelo de Javier Cercas, quien siempre se negó a indagar en su historia, hasta que se sintió obligado a hacerlo. El resultado es una novela absorbente, pletórica de acción, de humor y de emoción, que nos enfrenta a los temas esenciales de la narrativa de Cercas: la naturaleza radiante y poliédrica del heroísmo, la terca pervivencia de los muertos o la carga del pasado más incómodo. Exploración local y universal, personal y colectiva, belicosamente antibelicista, El monarca de las sombras da una vuelta de tuerca a la pregunta sobre la herencia de la guerra que Cercas abrió años atrás con Soldados de Salamina.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

From the internationally renowned author of The Impostor, a courageous journey into his own family history and that of a country collapsing from a fratricidal war--his most moving, most personal book, one he has spent his entire life preparing to write.

Javier Cercas grew up hearing the legend of his adored great-uncle Manuel Mena, who died at nineteen in the bloodiest battle of the Spanish Civil War--while fighting for Franco's army. Who was this young man? A fascist hero whose memory is an embarrassment or a committed idealist who happened to fall on the wrong side of history? Is it possible to be a moral person defending an immoral cause? Through visits back to his parents' village in southern Spain, interviews with survivors, and research into the murkiest corners of the war, the author pieces together the life of this enigmatic figure and of an entire generation. This sui generis work combines intimate family history, investigative scholarship, personal confession, war stories, and road trips, finally becoming 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.