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Loading... Even the darkest night (original 2019; edition 2022)by Javier Cercas, Anne McLean (Translator.)
Work InformationEven the Darkest Night by Javier Cercas (2019)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Terra Alta Javier Cercas Publicado: 2019 | 247 páginas Novela Intriga Policial Serie: Terra Alta #1 /s2GYnqHua_G4 Un crimen terrible sacude la apacible comarca de la Terra Alta: los propietarios de su mayor empresa, Gráficas Adell, aparecen asesinados tras haber sido sometidos a atroces torturas. Se encarga del caso Melchor MarĂn, un joven policĂa y lector voraz llegado desde Barcelona cuatro años atrás, con un oscuro pasado a cuestas que le ha convertido en una leyenda del cuerpo y que cree haber enterrado bajo su vida feliz como marido de la bibliotecaria del pueblo y padre de una niña llamada Cosette, igual que la hija de Jean Valjean, el protagonista de su novela favorita: «Los miserables». Partiendo de ese suceso, y a travĂ©s de una narraciĂłn trepidante y repleta de personajes memorables, esta novela se convierte en una lĂşcida reflexiĂłn sobre el valor de la ley, la posibilidad de la justicia y la legitimidad de la venganza, pero sobre todo en la epopeya de un hombre en busca de su lugar en el mundo. "It's true that he took justice into his own hands, but also that there was no other way to get it; it's true that he did not respect the forms of justice, but also true that would have been impossible to get justice by respecting them....Should his crime go unpunished for that reason?" Described as a crime novel (Cercas's first attempt at writing a pure crime novel, and the first of a series), this book is that, but it is also more. As the book opens, Melchor Marin is coming to the end of his night shift as a detective in the police department of small town Terra Alta when he is notified of a horrific double murder. The victims are an elderly couple, the wealthiest in town and owners of the business that employs many of the town's residents. Over the course of the novel, as Melchor works on solving the crime we get his backstory, which is interesting indeed. The novel is full of literary references, and Melchor is influenced in particular by Les Miserables. There is a lot of pondering of big questions of justice and revenge, and whether Inspector Javert is a "good" guy or a "bad" guy in his pursuit of Jean Valjean. The location is important too, as Terra Alta is where the Battle of the Ebro took place in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War. As I was reading it, I found that it moved very slowly, at least for a crime novel. But it really is much more, and as I thought about it afterwards, it has really resonated with me. It won the prestigious Spanish literary award Premio Planeta for 2019. 3 1/2 stars First Line: "Melchor is still in his office simmering on the low flame of his own impatience waiting for the night shift to end when the phone rings." Last Line: "'Home,' Melchor says, 'To Terra Alta.'" Das Gefängnis kann den jungen Melchor MarĂn nicht läutern, erst der Tod seiner Mutter, der nie aufgeklärt wird und scheinbar niemanden interessiert, fĂĽhrt dazu, dass er sich der anderen Seite der Gerechtigkeit zuwendet und Polizist werden will. Mit der Hilfe seines Anwalts Vivales gelingt es ihm und in Terra Alta kann er sich ein Leben mit seiner Frau und der gemeinsamen Tochter aufbauen. Es passiert nicht viel in dem kleinen Ort und so richtet er sich zwischen den Diensten und der gemeinsamen Liebe zur Literatur ein. Doch dann geschieht ein grausamer Mord an dem Unternehmerpaar Adell, der auch Melchors Dasein erschĂĽttern wird. Javier Cercas Roman spielt mit der Frage nach Recht und Gerechtigkeit und dem intensiven GefĂĽhl von Hass, das Menschen ob der augenscheinlichen Ungerechtigkeit in sich tragen. In „Terra Alta“ werden nie wirklich verheilte Wunden wieder aufgerissen und die Figuren herausgefordert, ihre Ideale und Werte zu prĂĽfen. Das Ganze erzählt der spanische Autor und Dozent, der 2016 mit dem Prix du livre europĂ©en ausgezeichnet wurde, auf eine spannende Weise, die einem sogleich packt. „Das ist ungefähr so, als wĂĽrde man einen Becher Gift trinken, im Glauben, dass man den tötet, den man hasst.“ Melchor ist vom Hass auf jene, die seine Mutter getötet haben und jene, die den Mord nicht aufgeklärt haben, angetrieben. Er selbst will herausfinden, was in jener Nacht geschehen ist und riskiert dafĂĽr viel. GleichermaĂźen geht es ihm mit den Morden an dem Ehepaar Adell, auch hier will er sich nicht mit dem SchlieĂźen der Akte, bevor ein Täter gefunden wurde, zufriedengeben. Wieder riskiert er viel und bezahlt dieses teuer. Er sucht Gerechtigkeit, die es jedoch nicht gibt, und erkennt stattdessen, was Hass mit den Menschen anrichten kann. Neben den spannenden Elementen um die Morde hat mich jedoch vor allem die Parallele zu Victor Hugos Roman „Die Elenden“ und die weiteren literarischen Anspielungen angesprochen, die geschickt integriert sind und herausstellen, was sich aus dem Lesen auch der alten Werke fĂĽr das eigene Handeln ableiten lässt. Mit Melchor MarĂn hat er einen starken Charakter geschaffen, der vielschichtig gestaltet ist und mit widersprĂĽchlichen GefĂĽhlen zu kämpfen hat. Ein anspruchsvoller literarischer Krimi, der in die AbgrĂĽnde der Gesellschaft und der Seele fĂĽhrt. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesTerra Alta (1)
"A first, prize-winning work of suspense from the internationally acclaimed author of Soldiers of Salamis. Melchor Marín is a young cop from the big city, Barcelona. But he is also an outsider. The son of a prostitute, Melchor went to prison as a teenager, convicted of working for a Colombian drug cartel. Behind bars, he read a book that changed his life: Les Misérables. Then his mother was murdered. He decided to become a policeman. Now he has been sent to Terra Alta, a small town in rural Cataluńa, to investigate the horrific double-murder of a wealthy local man and his wife. Before long, it becomes clear that nothing about the case is quite as it seems. Even the Darkest Night is a thought-provoking, elegantly constructed thriller about justice, revenge and, above all, the struggles of a righteous man trying to find his place in a corrupt world"-- No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)863.7Literature Spanish and Portuguese Spanish fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Even the Darkest Night is the first of three mystery novels by Javier Cercas. The good news is that there are at least two more out there. The bad news is that I don't think either has been translated into English yet. I suppose I can try to struggle through the Spanish over the summer, but I know I'll miss a lot. My Spanish was never more than competent at its best, and it's been 25+ years since I had even that competence.
The detective here is Melchor MarĂn, a police officer originally working in Barcelona who—for reasons I won't reveal—is forced to move temporarily to a small-town police force. His back story fascinates. He was raised by his prostitute mother and has no idea who his father is. As a teen he spent time in prison for work he'd done for a drug cartel. While in prison, he read Hugo's Les MisĂ©rables, which changed his life in two ways. First, it gave him a passion for 19th Century novels. Second, he came to identify with the obsessive Inspector Javert whose concept of justice is rigid and perpetual. His mother is murdered while he's doing time, and when he leaves prison, he trains to be a police officer, determined to set the world to rights in the way he sees fit, which is not necessarily by the books.
Even the Darkest Night opens in the rural community where he now works on the night of a particularly violent pair of murders. Evidence is scant, suspects are numerous, and higher ups decide to abandon the case once it stops drawing public attention. In a way, we know what the plot will be: Melchor will continue investigating against the instructions of his superiors, unexpected twists (some big ones) occur, and even once Melchor thinks he knows what's happened, he still feels as though he's missing a key part of the solution.
If you like mystery novels that are decidedly not cozy and that balance careful plotting with an eccentric and dangerous central character, you're in for a treat. You may also want to start brushing up on your Spanish because you'll definitely want to read the two novels that follow, and who knows when they'll be available in English? ( )