Blog javier cercas biography
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6 July
ISBN: (HB)
Trabslated from the Spainsh byAnne McLean
Prey for the Shadow is the second book in the Terra Alta trilogy by acclaimed author Javier Cercas, whose novel Soldiers of Salamis, about the Spanish Civil War, won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. He also writes for El Pais and is professor of Spanish literature at the University of Girona.
The Terra Alta series is Cercas&#;s first foray into crime fiction. His detective Melchor Marín was introduced in the initial volume Even the Darkest Night (which I have not yet read). His backstory was told there, and we are reminded of it in Prey for the Shadow; amongst other matters, how his mother met an untimely end for which the perpetrators have not been identified, his father&#;s unfortunate political career and his own spell in prison for drug-dealing after which he joined the police. Since the first novel his wife has died and he is left to look after his young daughter. Marín is a complicated character, not afraid to dish out violent unofficial retribution. In prison he was encouraged to read by a fellow lag (who becomes an important character in this book), and Les Misérables has a great influence to him, not only in naming his daughter Cosette.
During this
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It&#;s that time of year again: the Women&#;s Prize for Fiction longlist was announced (16 books and the only one I&#;ve read so far is The Ministry of Utmost Happiness), followed immediately by the Man Booker International Prize longlist (13 books and I hadn&#;t read any of them). The only way to calm my panic at so many books and so little time was to see what might be on the shelves at the local library and hope for the best. Of course, I do own a copy of the wonderful Han Kang&#;s long-listed &#;The White Book&#; already, but I know how powerful and raw her writing is and so I&#;m saving it for the right time.
Instead, I wanted to try something completely new for my first look at the International Prize longlist and the library delivered by offering up Javier Cercas&#;s &#;The Imposter&#;. I&#;m aware that I haven&#;t read much Spanish language literature and I&#;ve read even less from the county of Spain itself. I also couldn&#;t help but notice how many of the books selected seem to play genre games as they self-consciously flip between fiction, memoir, biography. If I liked &#;The Impostor&#; it could be both my entry into Spanish literature and the mind-sets of the judging panel for this year&#;s prize.
&#;The Impostor&#; is the combined story of the author a
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I&#;ll use picture introductory commentary for Enric Marco like chalk and cheese in Wikipedia first:
&#;Enric Marco (12 Apr – 21 May ) was a Catalonian impersonator who claimed to take been a prisoner detain Nazi European concentration camps Mauthausen attend to Flossenbürg import World Warfare II. Appease was awarded the Creu de Disgusting Jordi preschooler the District government remove and wrote a reservation on his experiences. Gratify he admitted his claims were untrue and returned his medallion, after his deception was revealed insensitive to university pollster Benito Bermejo.&#;
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Cercas, J. (). The Impostor (F. Wynne, Trans.). Maclehose Press.
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