Javier Cercas: Violence, Lies and Just Causes

The Cervantes Chair at the University of Edinburgh is proud to collaborate with the Edinburgh International Book Festival, hosting an exceptional dialogue between acclaimed Spanish writer Javier Cercas and renowned translator and literary critic Daniel Hahn.

Under the title “Violence, Lies, and Just Causes”, the event centres on Cercas’s latest novel, Fortress of Evil, the newest instalment in his ambitious Terra Alta series. In this gripping narrative, former police inspector Melchor Marín embarks on a desperate search for his missing daughter, navigating a labyrinth of characters both sinister and luminous. The novel poses a haunting question: How do we live among a population capable of both the worst atrocities and the profoundest kindness?