Lord of All the Dead

Lord of All the Dead is a novel by Javier Cercas that explores his family history and the collapse of a country from a fratricidal war. It revisits his parents' village in southern Spain to research the life of his ancestor, Manuel Mena, who died in combat at the age of nineteen during the battle of the Ebro. The author questions whether Mena was a fascist hero or a young idealist who fought on the wrong side, and how we should judge him as grandchildren and great-grandchildren of that generation. The novel combines road trips, personal confessions, war stories, and historical scholarship, becoming a tribute to Cercas' mother and the scars of an entire generation.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 04 April 2019
Publisher: Quercus Publishing

Lord of All the Dead is a courageous journey into Javier Cercas' family history and that of a country collapsing from a fratricidal war. The author revisits Ibahernando, his parents' village in southern Spain, to research the life of Manuel Mena. This ancestor, dearly loved by Cercas' mother, died in combat at the age of nineteen during the battle of the Ebro, the bloodiest episode in Spain's history.

Who was Manuel Mena? A fascist hero whose memory is an embarrassment to the author, or a young idealist who happened to fight on the wrong side? And how should we judge him, as grandchildren and great-grandchildren of that generation, interpreting history from our supposed omniscience and the misleading perspective of a present full of automatic answers, that fails to consider the particularities of each personal and family drama?

Wartime epics, heroism, and death are some of the underlying themes of this unclassifiable novel that combines road trips, personal confessions, war stories, and historical scholarship, finally becoming an incomparable tribute to the author's mother and the incurable scars of an entire generation.

Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean

Weight: 430g
Dimension: 148 x 218 x 30 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780857058324