A review by lucy_qhuay
El pintor de batallas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

3.0

In a tower by the Mediterranean, Andrés Faulques, a former war photographer, paints a circular fresco - the immortal image of a battle - searching for that image he was never able to capture with his cameras.

Already tormented by his own thoughts, he is disturbed anew by the memory of the woman he was never able to forget and a mysterious man, who comes from his past, seeking retribution.

Having once made a living out of war, Faulques took, years before, a picture of this man, a former Croat soldier, and now he's back, claiming that small act ruined his life.

As the romance evolves, the stories of the artist and the soldier emerge, in an intricate web of war, love, hate, knowledge and, of course, art.

This book is a deep reflection about war, the consequences of our acts and the human nature.

'El Pintor De Batallas' was a very interesting work, however I don't think I was able to achieve everything I was supposed to achieve, intelectually speaking.

I am a very wordy individual. I don't have a drop of artistic blood in me, much to my disappointment, so I see everything in terms of words and not images, if you know what I mean.

In this book, Pérez-Reverte used a lot of artistic language, such as lines, curves, planes, geometry, the colours, etc, therefore I don't think I really understood what he was trying to show the reader.

And that's why I didn't give it a higher rating.

I do think other people will be able to understand better what the author meant, but even if that doesn't happen, I think it's worth the reading just because of the deep thoughts about the cruel nature of war and man himself.