Friday, April 11, 2008

The Painter of Battles By Arturo Perez Reverte


An extraordinary story about a former war photographer, Faulques,who after achieving acclaim for his work, buys an old tower and paints a huge mural of all the classic war battles of time on the walls of his tower. A man comes to his tower and identifies himself as a former soldier whose photo Faulques took became famous. The man came to kill Faulques because the notoriety of the photo caused the people he fought in the war to locate and cruelly destroy his family and further, imprison and torture the former soldier.
What ensues is a long and remarkable dialogue between the two men; discussions about the painting, art history, imagination and memories of the painter and the soldier. We learn how they became what they are. A story about love and man’s capacity for both violence and empathy. This was a splendid and thoughtful read by a favorite and most versatile author who was, at one time, a war correspondent.

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