Considered by many critics to be the greatest novel about the Spanish Civil War, this classic work by Spaniard José Maria Gironella is an unbiased account of the complicated events, movements and personalities that led up to the war. Beginning in 1931, The Cypresses Believe in God covers the next five years of political unrest, culminating in the explosion of the brutal war that wreaked such great havoc on Spain and its citizens. In his epic novel, both gripping and suspenseful, Gironella deftly portrays the human conflict, both internal and external. The most influential philosophical movements of the 20th century are embodied in various characters. Through them, the reader is introduced to every faction involved - ancharist, communist, Catholic, royalist, existentialist, and others.

"A vastly ambitious novel... a must for those who want to know how the Spanish Civil War came about" — Time Magazine

"A powerful rendering of a brutal, baffling rehearsal of World War II. It recalls Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, that other 20th century masterwork that renders that pathos of tradition besieged" — Crisis Magazine

José María Gironella Pous (b. December 31, 1917, Darnius d. January 3, 2003, Arenys de Mar) was a Catalan and Spanish author best known for his fictional work The Cypresses Believe in God (Los cipreses creen en Dios) published in Spain in 1953, and translated into English by Harriet De Onís in 1955. The book is a novel in two parts, and the first part of a trilogy, written from a Roman Catholic viewpoint, by its Catholic author, who had been educated in a seminary. The story is set in Girona, a city in eastern Catalonia, and follows the life of a family, from 1931 until the Spanish Civil War breaks out in 1936. The protagonist is an atheist from Madrid who is married to a devout Basque woman, with whom he has three children. In a sequel to Cypresses, One Million Dead (Un Millón de Muertos), translated by Joan MacLean, Gironella follows the Alvear family through the war. The final book in the trilogy is Peace after War, published in English in 1969, also translated by MacLean.

Gironella fought in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Spanish Nationalists under Franco.