At the end of January 1939, just two months before the end of the Civil War, a group of Francoist prisoners is executed near the French border by Republican soldiers fleeing into exile. Among these prisoners is Rafael Sánchez Mazas, founder and ideologue of the Falange, poet, and future Franco minister, who miraculously manages to escape and hide in the forest while the Republicans pursue him; until a soldier discovers him, points his gun at him, and, looking into his eyes, spares his life.

Sixty years later, a failed novelist stumbles upon this buried wartime episode by chance and, fascinated by it, embarks on an investigation to clarify its circumstances and unravel its meaning. Who was Rafael Sánchez Mazas really? What was his true wartime experience? Who was the soldier who let him escape? And why did he do it? What secret did his gaze hide?

Revolutionary and dazzling novel, Soldiers of Salamis achieved extraordinary critical and popular success and propelled the career of one of the most prestigious novelists in contemporary Spanish literature. Since then, it has continued to be read worldwide with growing admiration and fourteen years later remains, as Mario Vargas Llosa stated, "one of the great novels of our time".