In his work Soldiers of SalamisJavier Cercas makes it clear that beyond the winning faction, there are always losers on both sides of any contest.
In a Civil War there can be the paradox of losing family members positioned in those conflicting ideals that embrace the flag as a cruel contradiction.
Thus, the determination of the ultimate victors, those who manage to hold the flag in front of everything and everyone, those who raise heroic values transmitted to the people as epic stories ends up hiding deep personal and moral miseries.
Manuel Mena he is the introductory character rather than the protagonist of this novel, the link with his predecessor Soldados de Salamina. You begin to read thinking of discovering his personal history, but the details of the skills of the young military man, absolutely rigorous with what happened at the front, fade to give way to a choral stage where incomprehension and pain spread, the suffering of those who understand the flag and the country as the skin and blood of those young people, almost children who shoot each other with the fury of the adopted ideal.
You can now buy The monarch of the shadows, the latest novel by Javier Cercas, here:
Great review. Good synthesis capacity.
Exquisite narration of the book, sensitive and with a spectacular ending, yes sir. The fact of recognizing spaces creates a kind of complicity that helps to congratulate you with the story… ..
I did not enjoy the film so much, too adapted to the then wife of Trueba.
In Girona there was a stir ... we all wanted to be extras in the film ..
Thanks. It's what movies have, they never quite reach the level of our imagination.