La sal de la tierra

At the beginning of the 20th century, the inhabitants of the Carpathians lead a simple life. Until the First World War broke out. Piotr Niewiadomski, illiterate, Catholic and docile imperial subject porter, whose ultimate aspiration is to get a downed bride and be a railroad employee, is recruited to fight a conflict he barely understands. His bewilderment, and not the contest itself, is the axis around which The Salt of the Earth, Józef Wittlin's masterpiece revolves, which is read, thanks to its suggestive ironic tone, as a singular plea against war and a beautiful tribute to the greatness of humble people. The salt of the earth had to be part of a trilogy, a novel about the patient infantryman, which the author never concluded; Apparently, the suitcase containing the erasers was lost due to the excess of zeal of a French soldier at the beginning of the Second World War. This edition, in addition to presenting a new translation of La sal de la tierra, includes a fragment of the second part of the trilogy, Healthy Death, as well as several texts by the author that contextualize the work.