One Million Dead, Vol. I (Novel)

One Million Dead picks up with the story of the Spanish Civil War that began with The Cypresses Believe in God. The novel, which spans the real war years of July 1936 to April 1939, keeps the Alvear family and Gerona as psychological and geographical nucleus while simultaneously spanning the entirety of Spain as the turmoil of the struggle requires. Gironella spares no detail of the Civil War's atrocities, depicting the split and strife in families and friendships, the devastation of churches and houses, and the loss of innocence, all caused by the continual re-enactment of Cain's sin. 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.”

One Million Dead matches the ambitious scale, dramatic poise, and emotional poignancy of its predecessor while conducting the autopsy of a national catastrophe that, despite its global relevance and ramifications, reveals the intrinsically fratricidal essence of war.

Paperback, 412 pages.