Antonio Monegal's anti-war plea, the history of Jerusalem in vignettes, the false life in the characters of George Saunders and other books of the week

“Jerusalem cannot stop being what it is, the thrice-holy city and the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it does not mean that it is condemned for its past, nor for the moments of violence and intolerance.” It is written by Guillermo Altares in his review of the comic

History of Jerusalem

, by Christophe Gaultier and Vincent Lemire, an erudite, raw and fun volume that tells the history of the city, told through an ancient tree that contemplates the population from the Mount of Olives. Faithful of the three great monotheistic religions have suffered and died in Jerusalem, but there have also been many moments of tolerance. And perhaps that is the only way for the future.

The Book of the Week is

The Silence of War

, by Antonio Monegal, which reveals that the epic speech, formalized by the

Iliad

and which has one of its peaks

in Shakespeare's verses in his play

Henry V

, “configured a system to to tell the war that is ideological without seeming so because it is already a cognitive mechanism that we have rooted through the cultural tradition to which we belong,” as Jordi Amat explains in his critique. Monegal's essay is thus an argument against the epic of war.

In another interesting article, Luna Miguel reviews three novels by three young writers:

Children of the Future

, by Andrea Toribio,

La ternura

, by Paula Ducay and

Mala Estrella

, by Julia Viejo, which reveals us, analyzing the form, the speech and the lyrics. , that these first three novels “allow us to glimpse other directions for literature here.”

Other books reviewed this week by Babelia experts

-

on the Book Day starting grid - are:

Orquesta

, by Miqui Otero, in which Music in a town's festivities is the narrator of a story of abuses of power , gender and class prejudices, hopes and frustrations;

Abyssal Fish

, a novel in which Rosa Ribas maintains the essence of a literature that always calls for personal growth, self-improvement and the search for authenticity in the smallest details;

Liberation Day

, which brings together various stories by George Saunders in which the characters live in dystopian worlds with no possibility of redemption no matter how hard they try;

Losing the Trial

, by Ariana Harwicz, about a foreign mother separated from her children who faces a custody trial and who does not do much to give an image that does not harm her;

Saving Freud

, by Andrew Nagorski, which chronicles the philosopher's life in Vienna and his escape to London; and

Como los Grecians

, by Guillem Martínez, a gastronomy book by the columnist who gives priority to the recipe, ignoring haute cuisine and star chefs.

'The silence of war', by Antonio Monegal

The essay by the philosopher and writer is a necessary discourse on the dangers of the glorification of violence and the cult of heroism in times of warlike discourses in the face of new conflicts.

Read Jordi Amat's entire review here

.

'Orchestra', by Miqui Otero

The Barcelona writer leaves his city in a book that unfolds a classic and credible story of abuses of power, gender and class prejudices, hopes and frustrations.

Read Nadal Suau's entire review here

.

'Abyssal fish', by Rosa Ribas

The writer bares her intimacy so that we dress with her knowledge, her learning, her experience.

Read the entire review by

Berna González Harbor here.

'Deliverance Day', by George Saunders

The American writer's stories reflect what was lost American optimism, with characters who are trapped in their inanity and without possible redemption.

Read José Maria Guelbenzu

's entire review here .

'Children of the future', by Andrea Toribio

Toribio brings something between autofiction and self-parody; the story of someone who grows as a reader, despite the precariousness that adult life offers her. All the conflicts and violence that reach the narrator are told gently, as if she did not want to worry her readers.

Read Luna Miguel's entire review here

.

'Tenderness', by Paula Ducay

In Ducay's prose, the reflection on love is not depressive but light, emotional relationships do not contain layers of lies but are honest, and his speech ensures a calm unprecedented in contemporary love novels.

Read Luna Miguel's entire review here

.

'Bad star', by Julia Viejo

Julia Viejo continues the trail of manners that she already started with the stories of 'In the cell there was a firefly'. In this story of discovery, bad luck is called a star because, even in the worst of the worst, its narrator trusts in magic, that is, in herself.

Read Luna Miguel's entire review here

.

'History of Jerusalem', by Christophe Gaultier and Vincent Lemire

The comic 'History of Jerusalem', erudite, crude and funny at the same time, is very useful in times when the past is used as a throwing weapon.

Read Guillermo Altares' entire review here

.

'Save Freud. A Life in Vienna and His Flight to London', by Andrew Nagorski

The journalist draws an essential portrait of the group of half a dozen people who helped the Jewish doctor flee to London after the annexation of Austria by the Third Reich.

Read Lola Galán's entire review here

.

'Like the Greeks', by Guillem Martínez

The writer's gastronomy book gives priority to the recipe, ignores haute cuisine and star chefs and becomes an ecumenical council in which personal memory, the history of food and the combative pamphlet come together.

Read Miquel Bonet's entire review here

.

'Losing Your Mind', by Ariana Harwicz

The latest novel by the Argentine writer uses a suspicious narrator to avoid the marital thriller about a contentious divorce.

Read Marta Peirano's entire review here

.