Book Review: From Javier Cercas to Stefan Zweig

The Mad of God at the End of the World, by Javier Cercas (Random House) “Do you promise me?” his mother asked him. In May 2023 Javier Cercas received an unusual and unusual invitation: to travel with Pope Francis to Mongolia and write what he wanted about him, about the Vatican and the journey, with absolute freedom. Atheist and anticlerical, Cercas accepted with one condition: to be able to speak to the Pope alone, at least five minutes. I want…

"Please allow me to introduce myself." That's the phrase the devil introduces himself with in "Sympathy for the Devil," the legendary Rolling Stones song. And so Javier Cercas (Ibahernando, Cáceres, 1962) decides to introduce himself at the beginning of "The Madman of God at the End of the World" (Random House), a novel without a shred of fiction that, nevertheless, is the most incredible of all his works.