From the bestselling author of Soldiers of Salamis which has sold over 20,000 copies in paperback in the UK, and is an international bestsellerSoldiers of Salamis was winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2005 The Speed of Light has been longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2007 Shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2008

Shortlisted for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2008.

'Cercas's writing has echoes of Scott Fitzgerald in the intense, shining clarity of its emotion, and of Faulkner' Independent 'A deeply affecting novel. A reflection on war, friendship, success and failure ... Cercas's novel carries a powerful warning for the war-hungry modern world' Scotland on Sunday 'Presents his narrator's foibles in a lucid, supple prose, well-matched to the novel's darker elements' Financial Times 'Engrossing ... it has verve and flair' Time Out

Javier Cercas was born in 1962. He is a novelist, short-story writer and essayist, whose books include Soldiers of Salamis, which was a huge international success selling nearly 1 million copies worldwide, being translated into twenty languages and winning Cercas and Anne McLean the Independent Prize for Foreign Fiction. Anne McLean has translated Latin American and Spanish novels, short stories, memoirs and other writings by writers including Carmen Martin Gaite, Orlando Gonzalez Esteva, Julio Cortazar and Tomas Eloy Martinez. Her translation of Soldiers of Salamis also won her the 2004 Valle Inclan Prize.