The Cypresses Believe in God: Volume One

Tetralogía sobre la guerra civil española

by José María Gironella, Harriet de Onís (Translator)

The Cypresses Believe in God is an epic novel about the anticipatory years of the Spanish Civil War. Set in the provincial capital of Gerona and spanning the years 1931 to 1936, the novel painstakingly plots the public and private elements which eventually exploded into war. At the center of the novel are Matías and Carmen Elgazu Alvear, and their three César, strange yet saintly; Pilar, charming and clever; and Ignacio, the protagonist, inquisitive and idealistic. Through these characters and the ordinary life of Gerona, Gironella writes, “I have tried to capture the everyday traits, the mentality, the inner ambiance of my compatriots in all their pettiness and all their grandeur.” Sprawling yet obsessively detailed, The Cypresses Believe in God is a work of singular standing for its harmony of historical actuality and artistic liberty. Writ large across the two volumes, unforgettably and tragically, is humanity’s susceptibility to the fickle dictates of ideology and its inscrutable capacity for brutality, but also its relentless search for meaning amidst multiplicity and its longing for a peace that will last.

Genres: Historical Fiction

444 pages, Paperback

Published November 19, 2020

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome.
What a page-turner. Great characters and a plot that brings Catalonia alive. All of the factions get their due - the devout Catholic reactionaries, the anarchists, the intellectual liberals, the sinister Masons, the socialists, the communists, and just introduced at the end of this volume, the blue shirted heroes of the Falange.

[Bárbara Alastuey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historia en una pequeña ciudad, Gerona, de las repúblicas antes de la guerra. Define a toda la sociedad y a todos los partidos
Se me ha hecho pesada

[Krisca · Rating 1 out of 5]

He abandonado la lectura. Definitivamente no me engancha

[Hagop T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

By taking moral and social problems seriously, and exploring all sides of issues such as capitalism, poverty, education, class relations, anticlericalism, and Catalan nationalism, it helps bring to life Spain immediately before the Civil War. This mission is aided by memorable characters, like the saintly Cesar, devout Carmen, practical Matias, worldly Julio, and progressive David and Olga. However, the book can get lost in repetitive/exhaustive cataloguing of all the various factions and their indecipherable acronyms—and it also ends very abruptly, even for a book that is explicitly Volume I.

Also a rare Spanish book (in my experience) with a heart that understands Catholicism and depicts it fairly.

[Joseph Hamrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal.