Promotional Information

The Captain Alatriste series goes from strength to strength. It is gaining fans throughout the trade. The film, starring Viggo Mortensen, broke all box office records for first-week takings when it was released in Spain. It also premiered at the Venice and Toronto festivals. Alatriste novels have now sold 5 million copies in Spanish language alone. Sales in the UK are building, with over 30,000 of the paperback of Captain Alatriste sold so far. 'In his hard-boiled, mordantly funny, unapologetically entertaining Captain Alatriste series, Perez-Reverte firmly buckles his swash and swaggers into the muddy, bloody streets of 17th Century Madrid' Time 'This is fiction that can be enjoyed on several levels: as a poignant evocation of doomed imperial splendour; as a clever literary game; as a parable about racism past and present; or as a simple tale of swashbuckling derring-do' Sunday Times

About the Author

Arturo Perez Reverte lives near Madrid. Originally a war correspondent, he now writes fiction full time. In 2003 he was elected to the Spanish Royal Academy. His website can be visited at www.perez-reverte.com

Reviews

"this is rigorous historical writing garnished with a fine sardonic humour" -- Max Porter DAILY TELEGRAPH

A former war correspondent, Spanish novelist Perez-Reverte continues his internationally acclaimed Captain Alatriste series with a third translated volume (following Purity of Blood), every bit as terse and engaging as previous books. Diego Alatriste, a 17th-century mercenary and wily veteran of campaigns from Italy to Flanders, is part of the army of Spanish King Philip IV-a defender of the Catholic faith-that's trying to suppress the Calvinist heretics of the Low Countries. Narrated is retrospect by OOigo Balboa, who at the time of the action was Alatriste's 14-year-old page, this installment focuses on the Spaniards' siege of the fortified rebel city of Breda. As the stalemate drags on, the battle becomes less "a matter of military interest to Spain but, rather, one of reputation." Its power and influence in decline, Spain's lingering hopes to avoid another embarrassing setback in Flanders rest with stoic warriors like Alatriste. The action is fast, furious, and sanguinary, and Perez-Reverte grimly recreates the universal madness and desperation of combat. He also captures the tedium and misery that is the common soldier's everyday fate and the zealotry with which Christians-Catholic and Protestant alike-once massacred each other. Factually sound and vividly imagined, this latest incarnation of Captain Alatriste will cheer old fans and win new ones. (Apr.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.