Lord of All the Dead (A Nonfiction Novel) - 9780525562504

From the internationally renowned author of Soldiers of Salamis, a "nonfiction novel" about his own family history and the legacy of the Spanish Civil War.

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 to his parents' village in southern Spain, interviews with survivors, and research into the murkiest corners of the war, Cercas pieces together the life of his enigmatic relative--and of an entire generation. Combining intimate family history, investigative scholarship, personal confession, war stories, and road trips, Lord of All the Dead is 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.