One land, one author: in Spain with Javier Cercas for a noir novel
Audio 29:00
Spanish writer Javier Cercas in studio at RFI (May 2021) © Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint / RFI
By: Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint
31 min
Javier Cercas, born in 1962 in Cáceres, is the author of internationally successful novels, translated into some thirty languages, including “The Soldiers of Salamis” (2002), “Anatomie d'un instant” (dedicated Book of the year 2009 by El Pais), or “The Laws of the Frontier” (2014, Mediterranean Foreign Prize 2014), “L'Imposteur” (2015) and “Le Point Blind” (2016).
His new novel “Terra Alta”, crowned with the Planeta Prize, is the first part of an upcoming trilogy.
(Replay)
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Terra Alta © Actes Sud
"On Catalan lands which still bear the scars of the Battle of the Ebro, Terra Alta is shaken by a terrible news item: we found, lifeless and torn apart, the bodies of the Adell spouses, wealthy nonagenarians who employ most of the locals. The small town unknowingly houses a police officer who was heroic during the Islamist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, and it is he, Melchor, who will lead the investigation. without traces of break-in, without convincing clues. Yet the first enigma - who is the murderer? - will be coupled with a deeper question: who is the policeman?
Because before being a happy husband and father, spending happy days in this peaceful village, the policeman converted into an obsessive vigilante was a former convict, raised by a prostitute in the slums of Barcelona. While he thought he was lost by rage and hatred of the world, the fortuitous reading of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables came to exorcise his demons and turn his fate upside down. He could have been Jean Valjean ... if he hadn't changed into Javert.
In Terra Alta, more than anywhere else, many secrets have their roots in war. And, to solve the case entrusted to him, Melchor must be aware that the love of absolute justice can turn out to be the most absolute of injustices. He will be given the opportunity to share Jean Valjean's dilemma:
“Stay in paradise and become a demon there!
Return to hell and become an angel there! ”
(Presentation of
the Actes Sud editions
)
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