Soldiers of Salamis – Reading Group “Milton”

The book selected by the group members is “Soldiers of Salamis” by the Spanish writer and essayist Javier Cercas.

To participate, it doesn’t matter if you have read the book, the intention is to discuss the themes, writing, authors, and similar works to the one selected through discussions and readings out loud, so that reading becomes a moment of sharing and reflection.

The book: at the end of the Spanish Civil War, near the border with France, the retreating republican troops decided to shoot a group of Francoist prisoners. In the confusion, one of them managed to escape. He was reached in the bushes by a young militiaman who recognized him but let him escape, effectively sparing him. The prisoner was Rafael Sánchez Mazas, founder and ideologue of the Falange. Sixty years later, a journalist accidentally learns about this story, is fascinated by it, and decides to understand how things really went: it is the beginning of an adventure made of source research, interviews with witnesses, moments of discouragement, hope, and emotion. With a perfect symbiosis between reality and fiction, Javier Cercas intertwines chronicle and interpretation and, dragging the reader towards an exciting ending, confirms that reality is often more surprising than fiction and that History is also made of the unrecognized sacrifice of individuals. Admission to the “Milton” Reading Group is free and open to all citizens.

Javier Cercas (1962) is a Spanish writer, a regular contributor to the Catalan edition of “El País” and its Saturday supplement, and since 1989 a lecturer in Spanish literature at the University of Girona. He achieved success with Soldiers of Salamis (Guanda 2002); The Motive (Guanda 2004); The Speed of Light (Guanda 2006); The Portrait of a Woman (Guanda 2008); Anatomy of a Moment (Guanda 2010); The New Tenant (Guanda 2011); The Truth of Agamemnon (Guanda, 2012); The Laws of the Frontier (Guanda, 2013); The Impostor (Guanda 2015, winner of the European Book Prize 2016); The Blind Spot (Guanda 2016), Terra Alta (Guanda 2020), Indipendenza (2021).

For information and registration: francescacordi@vespucci.edu.it