One Million Dead picks up a few hours after the narrative of The Cypresses Believe in God leaves off, a week in to the Spanish Civil War, and it runs through to the end of the war on April 1st, 1939. It's a more sprawling narrative than Cypresses, and as a result somewhat less personal in scope, though the characters we met in Cypresses continue on and are joined by many others. Gironella's aim in the novel was to write about what the civil war did to Spain, on both sides of the battle lines. His heart is clearly with the Spanish culture which too many of the Republicans were happy to put before a firing squad, but at the same time Gironella's narrative primarily focuses on the human ties that span ideology -- and the extent to which ideology is the refuge and conduit for those seeking to turn to hate rather than to human sympathy. Among the most interesting characters on both sides are those who are consistently willing to put friendship above ideology, and on both side the most tragic characters are those who turn themselves wholehearted over to the conflict and allow it to corrupt them and empty their souls.
