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by David Toscana (Author)
LA NOVELA GANADORA DEL PREMIO ALFAGUARA 2026
«Ofrece una lectura simbólica, casi mítica, sobre la guerra, el poder y la resistencia. Una gran épica de los vencidos . -Del acta del Jurado
Año 1014. Tras derrotar a los búlgaros en la batalla de Klyuch, el emperador bizantino Basilio II ordena arrancar los ojos de los quince mil soldados del ejército enemigo, dejando tuerto a uno de cada cien hombres para que guíen a los ciegos de regreso a casa. Durante semanas, una columna de desarrapados recorre a tientas el largo camino hasta la capital búlgara, donde los recibe el zar Samuel, que ante el terrible espectáculo de sus hombres humillados, cae fulminado por la pena. Lo sucede en el trono su hijo Gavril, heredero de un imperio amenazado que deberá defender haciendo uso de la astucia para elevar la moral del pueblo después de la última derrota.
"Offers a symbolic, almost mythical reading of war, power, and resistance. A great epic of the defeated." --from the Jury's citation Year 1014. After defeating the Bulgarians at the Battle of Klyuch, the Byzantine emperor Basil II orders the eyes of fifteen thousand enemy soldiers to be put out, leaving one man in every hundred with a single eye so that he may lead the blind back home. For weeks, a ragged column gropes its way along the long road to the Bulgarian capital, where they are received by Tsar Samuel, who, confronted with the terrible sight of his humiliated men, is struck dead by grief. He is succeeded on the throne by his son Gavril, heir to a threatened empire who must rely on cunning to raise the people's morale after the latest defeat. Beyond the city walls, enemies lie in wait, while in the streets soldiers attempt to resume their lives. Some hide and keep silent; others discover that their hands can replace sight; some fear appearing monstrous, and there is no shortage of those who make a good business selling precious ceramic beads that imitate eyes. And among them all there is a blind scribe who, unable to copy what has already been written, pours onto parchment a story that grows within him: that of the fifteen thousand blind men and their unexpected revenge. History, invention, and poetry converge in this magnificent tableau inspired by medieval chronicles and by one of the cruelest episodes of the Byzantine wars. The Blind Army speaks to us, with delightful irony and ingenuity, about the narratives of the past and about how the testimony of the defeated so easily vanishes into oblivion.
Author Biography
David Toscana (Monterrey, México, 1961) ha publicado los libros de cuentos Lontananza (1997) y Brindis por un fracaso (2006), y las novelas Las bicicletas (1992), Estación Tula (1995), Santa María del Circo (1998), Duelo por Miguel Pruneda (2002), El último lector (2005), El ejército iluminado (2006), Los puentes de Königsberg (2009), La ciudad que el diablo se llevó (2012), Evangelia (2016), Olegaroy (2017) y El peso de vivir en la tierra (2022). Formó parte del International Writing Program de la Universidad de Iowa y del Berliner Künstlerprogramm. Ha sido galardonado con los premios José María Arguedas, Antonin Artaud, Colima, José Fuentes Mares, Xavier Villaurrutia, Elena Poniatowska, Mazatlán y Bienal de Novela Mario Vargas Llosa. Su obra ha sido traducida a diecisiete lenguas.
