A tale of a thousand and one versions: Gernika in two contemporary novels

Subject to diverging versions, the bombing of Gernika is, to date, surrounded by contradictions. In this essay, we draft the principal narratives of the mediatic, historiographic and literary discourses about the attack, before focussing on several elements that fiction borrows from the controversy with a testimonial or dramatic aim. Amongst said elements, we analyze how two contemporary novels, El chico de Guernica (Luis Iriondo) and Le h & eacute;ron de Guernica (Antoine Choplin) address the following topics: the destruction range and the inhabitants' trauma, the responsability of the assault, the operation's motives (whether Guernica was a military aim or not) and the different aspects that can trigger a symbolic reading of the air raid.