In the Line of Fire

Summer 1938, the Spanish Civil War. For ten days, Republicans and Nationalists fight over the small town of Castellet del Segre, which holds little strategic importance. On the front line, International Brigaders clash with Falangists, militias with legionnaires, men with women, those who went to war out of conviction and those whom war has forced to take up arms. Here there is room for courage and cowardice, heroism and despair, camaraderie and fear. On both sides of the front are people united by far more than divides them—but now they are forced to kill one another. They fight, they die, and until the very last moment they cling to life, sometimes no longer remembering what they are fighting for. This is a war that gradually devours everyone. “At some point you realize,” says Arturo Pérez-Reverte, “that in civil war there is no good and evil—there is only one horror fighting another.” In this epic work, real accounts intertwine with literary fiction, and the small stories of many people come together to form a colossal, poignant picture in which it is impossible to choose which side you are on, because on both sides—there are simply people. A novel about real war, where there is no heroism, only naked, stripped-to-the-bone humanity and the relentless fear of death. Pérez-Reverte creates a ruthless, powerful, and honest text that leaves the reader with no illusions: war is always a tragedy in which there are no right or wrong sides. This unputdownable book makes us reflect on the price people pay for the ideas of others. It will appeal to fans of stark, psychologically authentic war prose where the focus is not on battle scenes, but on the individual in war—in the spirit of Ernest Hemingway and Erich Maria Remarque. It will appeal to readers who value historical authenticity, deeply developed characters, and are ready to immerse themselves in an atmosphere where the line between victim and executioner blurs, and war is revealed in all its senseless cruelty. Arturo Pérez-Reverte is a former war correspondent and the acclaimed author of brilliant historical, military, and adventure novels translated into forty languages. He created the Captain Diego Alatriste series and has received the most prestigious literary awards. He worked as a war correspondent for more than twenty years, covering conflicts around the world, and his experience is directly reflected in this book.