Considered by many critics to be the greatest novel about the Spanish Civil War, this classic work by Spaniard Jose Maria Gironella is an unbiased account of the complicated events, movements and personalities that led up to the war. Beginning in 1931, Cypresses covers the next five years of political unrest, culminating in the explosion of the brutal war that wreaked such great havoc on Spain and its citizens. In his epic novel, both gripping and suspenseful, Gironella deftly portrays the human conflict, both internal and external. The most influential philosophical movements of the 20th century are embodied in various characters. Through them, the reader is introduced to every faction involved--ancharist, communist, Catholic, royalist, existentialist, and others.

The Cypresses Believe in God: Spain on the Eve of Civil War - A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Gironella, José María

Contemporary

Ignatius Press

Peace After War: Volume One

Genre Fiction

Cluny Media

Peace After War: Volume Two

The Cypresses Believe in God is an epic novel about the anticipatory years of the Spanish Civil War. Set in the provincial capital of Gerona and spanning the years 1931 to 1936, the novel painstakingly plots the public and private elements which eventually exploded into war. At the center of the novel are Matías and Carmen Elgazu Alvear, and their three children: César, strange yet saintly; Pilar, charming and clever; and Ignacio, the protagonist, inquisitive and idealistic. Through these characters and the ordinary life of Gerona, Gironella writes, “I have tried to capture the everyday traits, the mentality, the inner ambiance of my compatriots in all their pettiness and all their grandeur.” Sprawling yet obsessively detailed, The Cypresses Believe in God is a work of singular standing for its harmony of historical actuality and artistic liberty. Writ large across the two volumes, unforgettably and tragically, is humanity’s susceptibility to the fickle dictates of ideology and its inscrutable capacity for brutality, but also its relentless search for meaning amidst multiplicity and its longing for a peace that will last.

The Cypresses Believe in God: Volume One

The Cypresses Believe in God: Volume Two

One Million Dead continues the chronicle of the Spanish Civil War begun in The Cypresses Believe in God. Covering the actual war years of July 1936 to April 1939, the novel retains the Alvear family and Gerona as its psychological and geographical nuclei while also traversing the entirety of Spain as the chaos of the conflict dictates. Gironella spares none of the horrific details of the Civil War, illustrating the division and discord in families and friendships, the destruction of churches and homes, and the demise of innocence all wrought by the repeated re-enactment of the sin of Cain. From this panorama of death the book draws its title: Gironella writes, “I have used the figure of a million because I am including the murdered among the dead—all those who died at the hands of men who, in the grip of hatred, killed their own capacity for pity, their own souls.” 
Matching the ambitious scope, dramatic poise, and emotional poignancy of its prequel, One Million Dead balances between impartiality and its author’s own attitude as it conducts the autopsy of a national tragedy which, its global relevance and repercussions notwithstanding, reveals the fundamentally fratricidal nature of war.

One Million Dead: Volume One

Carta a mi madre muerta (Documento) (Spanish Edition)

World Literature

Planeta

Los Cipreses Creen En Dios (Spanish Edition)

Esta crónica de la época de la Segunda República es la novela española más leída del siglo XX. José María Gironella relata la vida de una familia de clase media, los Alvear, y a partir de aquí va profundizando en todos los aspectos de la vida ciudadana y de las diversas capas sociales. El lector asiste a lo largo de la obra

Los cipreses creen en Dios (Spanish Edition)

Editorial Planeta

Por amor a la verdad (Spanish Edition)

Un millón de muertos

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Books by Gironella, José María