The Death of Franco (2023)

A unique perspective on one of the most pivotal moments of European history.

It looks like the old lady’s opinion or prophecy will come true in Franco when she said: ‘The devils never die.’ But even though the devils may never die, some still die and most of it depends on how people percieve the devils, death and life. In 1975, Gudbergur Bergsson observes Spanish leader Francisco Franco’s drawn-out death struggle over several weeks, and records it in a diary. The dictator had then ruled over Spain for over thirty-five years. Excerpts from the diary appeared at the time in a newspaper, but this books contains the full record as seen for the first time.

Here, the writer Gudbergur draws a unique close-up profile of the final days of a dictator in an era of growing scientific faith in one of the strongholds of Catholicism. He also describes the social chaos created by the impending death of the national leader and how a vision of wealth and profit is spreading, thanks to a new social ideal that rests all at once on technological, religious and capitalist elements.