The vision and the path

What is Europe? A continent fragmented through the centuries by wars, border conflicts and cultural diversity. As Europeans, we do not have a common language or a common history, but we do have common roots, needs and ambitions. These similarities led us to fulfil what at the end of the Second World War could have been called a 'reasonable utopia' - the European Union. The Spanish writer Javier Cercas investigates Europe and Europeans, our past, the conflicts, the ideologies and the people who forged Europe as we know it today. Though no final answer to all the questions can be found, the conclusion seems inevitable: Europe will be unified, naturally, sooner or later, despite all the hostility. This is the eleventh essay in the Big Ideas series created by the European Investment Bank. The EIB has invited international thought leaders to write about the most important issues of the day. These essays are a reminder that we need new thinking to protect the environment, promote equality and improve people's lives around the globe.

Javier Cercas (Ibahernando, Spain, 1962) holds a PhD in Spanish Studies, and he has worked as a Spanish literature professor first at the University of Illinois and later at the University of Girona, a job that he had for many years while he also wrote novels. In 2001, he published Soldiers of Salamis. It was a resounding success both in Spain and abroad, receiving praise from prestigious authors such as Mario Vargas Llosa, George Steiner, J.M. Coetzee and Susan Sontag. Since then, Cercas has dedicated himself to writing full-time, occupying a leading role in Spanish fiction and taking an active part in cultural and political debates in the country through his articles in the press, which have a very broad readership. He is a regular contributor to the newspaper El País. Cercas' work has earned international acclaim, and is a daring exploration of the lines that separate reality and fiction; the author himself describing his work as 'real stories', always looking to scrutinise the present and its roots in the past. The publication of Lord of All the Dead (February 2017) closes this formidable literary exercise of personal memory on the Spanish Civil War. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages and have won several national and international awards, such as the 2016 European Book Award for his work The Impostor, which was longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize. In 2018 he was awarded the Prix André Malraux for Lord of All the Dead. He also recently won the 2019 Planeta Prize for his novel Terra Alta.