Soldiers of Salamis (Spanish: Soldados de Salamina) is a novel published in 2001 by Spanish author Javier Cercas. A film adaptation Soldados de Salamina was released in 2003. The novel was well received in Spanish literary circles and the English translation by Anne McLean won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for 2004.[1]
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Published by Javier Cercas in 2001. The title is an allusion to the famous Battle of Salamis in which the Athenian fleet defeats the Persians. The book has been acclaimed by both readers and critics in Spain and was top of the best-seller book list for many months. Written in what is considered the Spanish Post Modern era.
The novel is divided into three sections. The first and third section depict the historical investigation of a fictional Javier Cercas into the life of Rafael Sánchez Mazas. The second section is a biographical retelling of Mazas's life.
In the first section of the novel, a fictionalized version of the author, also called Javier Cercas and a journalist, interviews the son of Mazas. During the interview Cercas is told the story of how Mazas's escapes from execution by the republicans at the end of the Spanish Civil War with the help of a lone soldier. Encouraged by his eccentric girlfriend, a TV fortune teller, Javier begins investigating the incident. Early on he writes a brief article in his newspaper based on the retelling by Mazas's son. In response to the Cercas becomes obsessed with finding the soldier that spared the life of Mazas.
The second section of the novel takes place during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).The nucleus of this section of the book is Rafael Sánchez Mazas's life. Cercas presents him as a writer and idealist of the Falange Española and close collaborator of José Antonio Primo de Rivera. The narrative in this section focuses on the particular's of his escape from execution at the end of the Spanish Civil War. When a group of prisoners is taken to the forest to be executed, Sanchez Mazas is able to flee and hide in the bush. A Republican soldier finds him but decides to spare his life and when asked by another soldier if anyone is there he replies that no one is there. Helped by several deserters, Mazas evades the retreating republican forces and eventually returns to Falangist custody where he became an important propagandist for the Franco regime.
In the third section in the novel, after having written the biography in the second section, the Cercas character is still curious about the story of Mazas's escape. Following a series of leads, Cercas comes in contact with an old man named Miralles. Miralles had fought for the Republicans in the Spanish civil war and later became a member of the French Foreign legion responsible for heroic feats during World War II. Cercas discovers him sequestered in a retirement home in his old age. Cercas comes to believe that Mirrales was the soldier who saved Mazas from execution. However, Mirralles will neither confirm nor deny having been the soldier to save Maza's. The fictional Cercas ends the novel with a monologue questioning the historical explanation which he had investigated and the nature of heroes
Soldados de Salamina was taken to the big screen by the director and screenwriter David Trueba, premiering in Spain on March 21, 2003.