Hay lugares de los que nunca se vuelve. La novela mas intensa y turbadora de Arturo Perez-Reverte

En una torre junto al Mediterraneo, en busca de la foto que nunca pudo hacer, un antiguo fotografo pinta un gran fresco circular en la pared: el paisaje intemporal de una batalla. Lo acompanan en la tarea un rostro que regresa del pasado para cobrar una deuda mortal, y la sombra de una mujer desaparecida diez anos atras. En torno a esos tres personajes, Arturo Perez-Reverte ha escrito la mas intensa y turbadora historia de su larga carrera de novelista.

Deslumbrante de principio a fin, El pintor de batallas arrastra al lector, subyugado, a traves de la compleja geometria del caos del siglo XX: el arte, la ciencia, la guerra, el amor, la lucidez y la soledad, se combinan en el vasto mural de un mundo que agoniza.

La critica ha dicho:

El pintor de batallas es, en mi opinion, el libro mas descorazonador, mas duro y mas triste de Perez-Reverte. Y tambien seguramente el mas lucido, ademas del mas ambicioso, intelectual y literariamente. Jose Manuel Sanchez Ron, El Pais

El escritor espanol regresa a su pasado de corresponsal de guerra a traves de esta novela impresionante… Dificilmente un libro ha sumergido al lector tan profundamente en los limos del mal como este. Anthony Palou, Le Figaro Magazine

Arturo Perez-Reverte confirma de nuevo su lugar como gran maestro del thriller historico en esta magistral novela que conjuga secretos enterrados bajo las cenizas de un pasado funesto, glosas filosoficas y un diabolico sentido de la intriga. Apasionante. Elias Levy, Voir-Quebec

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Acclaimed author Arturo Perez-Reverte has earned a distinguished reputation as a master of the literary thriller with his international bestsellers The Club Dumas and The Queen of the South. Now, in this haunting new work, Perez-Reverte has written his most accomplished novel to date. The Painter of Battles is a captivating tale of love, war, art, and revenge.

Andres Faulques, a world-renowned war photographer, has retired to a life of solitude on the Spanish coast. On the walls of a tower overlooking the sea, he spends his days painting a huge mural that pays homage to history’s classic works of war art and that incorporates a lifetime of disturbing images. One night, an unexpected visitor arrives at Faulques’ door and challenges the painter to remember him. As Faulques struggles to recall the face, the man explains that he was the subject of an iconic photo taken by Faulques in a war zone years ago. And why have you come looking for me? asks Faulques. The stranger answers, Because I’m going to kill you.

This story transports Faulques to the time when he crossed continents to capture conflicts on film with his lover, Olvido, at his side. Until she walked into his life, Faulques muses, he had believed he would survive both war and women.

As the tense dialogue between Faulques and his visitor continues, the stakes grow ever higher. What they are grappling with quickly proves to be not just Faulques’ fate but the very nature of human love and cruelty itself.

Arturo Perez-Reverte perfectly balances the shadows of the heart with the chaos of war in this stunning composition on morality. Superb and tautly written, The Painter of Battles is a deeply affecting novel about life and art.