Blade of Light (Basque Literature Series, 7)

Blade of Light is a uchronia- an alternate history-in its main plot line, Hitler has won the Second World War and now dominates Europe. He then decides to conquer first Manhattan and then the whole American continent. His journey takes him to New York on a ship aboard which Charles Chaplin is also traveling. Chaplin has been imprisoned and tortured on account of his film The Great Dictator, which remains a pesky thorn in Hitler's side. On a second level another story is told-that of a stowaway who traveled to New York in 1886 hidden inside the crown of the Statue of Liberty. The fate of this stowaway, Olivier Legrand, crosses Chaplin's, who manages to escape from his torturers and finds refuge with the now old man. The originality of the story has its narrative counterpoint in Cano's attractive prose style, full of images and lyricism. A master of "what if?" and suspense the novel is also an important reflection on life and the process of writing and artistic creation.