文摘
The Spanish Civil War and the post-war period, immediately became a popular literary theme, whose appeal has never dwindled. Since approximately the 1980s the novels of the War have, with very few exceptions, adopted the perspective of the Republicans. J.M. de Prada’s (Me hallará la muerte. Destino, Barcelona, 2012) tells the story of a rogue who enlists in the Spanish División Azul that fought in Russia alongside the Germans in World War II, is imprisoned in a gulag, and returns to Spain in the 1950s. By presenting the ideology of the Spaniards who fought against Russian communism in the name of Catholicism, Prada highlights the religious credo of the Nationalists during the Civil War and underscores the Marxist extremism of the Republicans. The part set in post-war Spain reflects on political change—in a society led by technocrats where falangistas had lost all influence—and on the modernisation of Spain. In so doing, Me hallará la muerte succeeds in fictionalising the Spanish Civil War from a different point of view, but with historical accuracy insofar as it underscores minutely the Catholic idearium of the Nationalists and their commitment to fight Marxism.