The Painter of Battles

Sep 08, 2011 Louize rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Originally written here.

SYMMETRY

After Isaac Newton laid his 3rd law of motion, almost every branch of science agreed with him. I suppose, even religion does. “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” It is the fundamental symmetry of the universe. Our every action draws an imaginary path, an effect. Sometimes even a small change may result to a large difference.

Andrés Faulques, a war photographer by profession, decided to leave his famous life and secluded himself in a tower...more

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Jan 05, 2009 Brooke rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, general-fiction

I was wary coming into this one after having given up on the last Pérez-Reverte book I tried. This wariness was a little uncalled for, since I had immensely enjoyed three others he wrote, but in the end it was justified. I went back and forth between being intrigued and downright bored, and quite truthfully only the slim 200-page count convinced me to see it through.

The main character, Faulques, is a former war photographer who has retired to an old tower to paint a mural of battles, an attempt...more

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Jul 15, 2008 Sandie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-lit

The Painter of Battles is a beautifully written word picture encompassing everything from "the Butterfly effect", to art history lessons, to a morality homily on the futility of war and the evil that man bestows on his fellow man.

Perez-Reverte draws you into the story as he meticulously recounts (probably from his own experiences as a war journalist) example after example of the insanity of war and examines the cruelty and finality of its outcome. In essence, Perez-Reverte gives us and in depth...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Biogeek rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A novel that may have been better as a short story. The premise, and some of the dialog in the first and last 50 pages, were intriguing. A retired and reclusive war photographer is visited by a Croat he once photographed retreating from a battle. That one photo, an award-winning one, had unexpected, and tragic, repercussions in the subject's life, and now he wants to kill the photographer. But not before the two engage in pages and pages of discussions about art, war, cruelty, death, love, respo...more

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Feb 10, 2007 Kitty-Wu rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Este libro me ha gustado en cierta manera y me ha cansado en otra. Se reconoce bastante al autor en el personaje de Faulques, y me parece interesante la introspección del personaje sobre el tema de la guerra y los horrores de la condición humana, especialmente en la confrontación con Ivo... pero Reverte me parece penosamente pedante en otros momentos, pretendiendo tener la verdad absoluta sobre el mundo y los hilos ocultos que lo mueven... no niego que seguramente, tanto el personaje como el aut...more

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Jun 06, 2008 Caitlin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is like a one act play in which the main character, previously a war photographer in the Balkans, gives up his career to live in seclusion and paint the inside of the lighthouse in which he lives. However, a man whose life he affected by doing nothing but shooting photographs of the suffering, has decided he will camp out at the painter's home and eventually kill him, to the painter's knowledge. While he is there, he tries to make the painter gain emotional attachments. The book provid...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Saskia Marijke Niehorster-Cook rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is my fourth book of Arturo Perez-Reverte, and the one that gives the closest psychological insight to the writer. I have heard that he is reticent about letting his work be translated into other languages, perhaps in fear that the meaning will be lost or that the beauty of his words will fade. I admit that his writing is so lush and lovely and perhaps it does lose some value in the translation, but luckily for me, i am able to read it in Spanish, it's original version, so I do not know how...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Duarte Branquinho rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Há muito de autobiográfico em “O Pintor de Batalhas”. Neste romance que é uma reflexão profunda e intensa, Arturo Pérez-Reverte conta a história de André Faulques, um fotógrafo de guerra que se refugiou numa torre de vigia do século XVIII à beira do Mediterrâneo, onde, solitário, pinta um grande fresco na sua parede. A troca da câmara fotográfica pelos pincéis tem uma razão, que é o mote deste livro: “Se, como defendiam os teóricos da arte, a fotografia recordava à pintura o que esta nunca devia...more Há muito de autobiográfico em “O Pintor de Batalhas”. Neste romance que é uma reflexão profunda e intensa, Arturo Pérez-Reverte conta a história de André Faulques, um fotógrafo de guerra que se refugiou numa torre de vigia do século XVIII à beira do Mediterrâneo, onde, solitário, pinta um grande fresco na sua parede. A troca da câmara fotográfica pelos pincéis tem uma razão, que é o mote deste livro: “Se, como defendiam os teóricos da arte, a fotografia recordava à pintura o que esta nunca devia fazer, Faulques tinha a certeza de que o seu trabalho na torre recordava à fotografia o que esta era capaz de sugerir, mas não de conseguir: a vasta visão circular, contínua, do xadrez caótico, regra implacável que governava o acaso perverso — a ambiguidade do que governava o quê não era em absoluto casual — do mundo e da vida. Aquele ponto de vista confirmava o carácter geométrico dessa perversidade, a norma do caos (...)”.

Faulques é visitado por um homem que o informa prontamente que o quer matar. Trata-se de Ivo Markovic, fotografado pelo pintor de batalhas durante a guerra da ex-Jugoslávia, que antes de concretizar o seu intento deseja que ele “compreenda algumas coisas”. Inicia-se, assim, uma longa conversa entre ambos. Esta visita inesperada é um regresso do seu passado, fá-lo voltar à guerra e à memória de um amor nunca esquecido, numa verdadeira viagem interior, ao mesmo tempo que fala sobre arte e sobre a sua pintura. Num desses diálogos, sobre pintores considerados mestres, há uma passagem muito interessante, onde Markovic diz: “(...) Picasso também pintou um quadro de guerra. Guernica, chama-se. Embora, na realidade, ninguém diria que é um quadro de guerra. Pelo menos, não como este. Não é verdade?” Ao que Faulques responde, implacável, “Picasso nunca viu uma guerra na vida.”

Para quem já gostava de Pérez-Reverte, como eu, este livro é a melhor confirmação do talento deste escritor espanhol. Para os que ainda o desconhecem é, com certeza, uma descoberta fantástica.(less)

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Aug 16, 2012 Sean McGovern rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I'm never sure what to make of some books. Arturo Perez-Reverte has two - "The Fencing Master" and now "The Painter of Battles". "Painter" (as translated by Margaret Sayers Peden) flashes with touches of Hemingway, but in terms of plot...this is the Twilight of "The Sun Also Rises", the echo of "For Whom the Bell Tolls". This is about making sense of what one has seen, and the fact that there is nothing we can do about our shadows.

A photo-journalist retires from his life-in-wartime, and exiles h...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Remo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2006, novela

Si yo fuera un periodista de la revista Qué Leer y quisiera un titular impactante para mi recensión de este libro, sin duda elegiría algo del estilo «El pintor de batallas es una mezcla entre Territorio comanche y Cinco horas con Mario». Y es que nuestro idolatrado Reverte ha cambiado totalmente de registro. Esto no es una novela, es un monólogo al que se le ha añadido un espaciotiempo para que parezca una novela. Y no es que no me haya gustado, ojo.

Reverte reflexiona sobre la guerra, básicamen

...more

Si yo fuera un periodista de la revista Qué Leer y quisiera un titular impactante para mi recensión de este libro, sin duda elegiría algo del estilo «El pintor de batallas es una mezcla entre Territorio comanche y Cinco horas con Mario». Y es que nuestro idolatrado Reverte ha cambiado totalmente de registro. Esto no es una novela, es un monólogo al que se le ha añadido un espaciotiempo para que parezca una novela. Y no es que no me haya gustado, ojo.

Reverte reflexiona sobre la guerra, básicamente. Sobre la guerra y los héroes cansados. Un fotógrafo de guerra, tras muchos años de profesión y tras ver más cosas de las que le habrían gustado, se recluye en una antigua torre vigía junto al Mediterráneo para pintar en su interior un inmenso fresco circular, la batalla de todas las batallas.

En la novela sólo hay tres personajes importantes, y consiste principalmente en largos monólogos interiores y recuerdos de Faulques, alter ego de Reverte y protagonista de la novela, suturados levísimamente con las intervenciones del narrador. Para los hincha de Reverte, muchas de las cosas que cuenta Faulques ya las habíamos leído, tanto en Territorio comanche como en muchos de sus artículos de El Semanal, donde escribe habitualmente. El libro es una recopilación de todas las vivencias de Reverte sobre la guerra, el horror, la miserable naturaleza humana cuando se nos coloca entre la espada y la pared, o cuando se nos dota de poder omnímodo. La guerra es el escenario perfecto para que se den estas dos situaciones.

El protagonista comparte todas sus reflexiones con su némesis, Ivo, un croata al que conoció en el sitio de Vukovar y que ha regresado del infierno, recorriendo mucho mundo, para encontrarle. El fantasma de una mujer, Olvido Ferrara, demasiado parecida a la protagonista de El club Dumas, impregna toda las páginas de los recuerdos de Faulques.

Creo que Reverte ha publicado este libro en forma de novela porque si no habría sido un territorio comanche II. El hecho de crear un protagonista le permite además retratar mejor el inmenso cansancio del que ha cruzado la puerta del horror, del que, como dice Reverte muchas veces en muchos sitios, “ha recorrido esos últimos mil metros que nadie más ha recorrido, y ha visto cosas que nadie más sabe y que cambiarán su vida para siempre”.

Es un libro oscuro, que te agarra y no te suelta, en el que salen a la superficie muchos de los fantasmas del autor, que se revela humano, demasiado humano, a través del protagonista. En resumen, un gran ensayo sobre la guerra y sobre todo sobre el ser humano, sus bajezas, debilidades y sus vergüenzas. Mi nota: Muy bueno

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Dec 18, 2011 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Loved his early historical crime books, hated his middle, drug running books. And now! its back to the strong powerful love I have for this guy - this book is proper ace!

Its rare I find a book harrowing, but here, the author rams that nail in pretty hard.
Ok, there is an enigmatic lady, sexy fashion model type always wearing painted on dresses and with a pair of piercing green eye!(lame) Who seems to deeply understand the entire world(lame) and should probably jog-on and go and live in Rivendell...more

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Aug 10, 2011 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-mainstream

Perez-Reverte, Arturo. THE PAINTER OF BATTLES. (2006; Eng. trans. 2008). ****.
This is an author that must be read. His early novels, including “The Club Dumas,” “The Flanders Panel,” and “The Seville Communion” were historical crime novels (if they can be classified at all) that were unexcelled in their plotting and execution. This novel is very different from his earlier works. It is the story of Sr. Faulques who was a war photographer who retired in order to paint. During his career, he saw a...more Perez-Reverte, Arturo. THE PAINTER OF BATTLES. (2006; Eng. trans. 2008). ****.
This is an author that must be read. His early novels, including “The Club Dumas,” “The Flanders Panel,” and “The Seville Communion” were historical crime novels (if they can be classified at all) that were unexcelled in their plotting and execution. This novel is very different from his earlier works. It is the story of Sr. Faulques who was a war photographer who retired in order to paint. During his career, he saw and photographed all the horrors of war in almost every country that was involved in conflict either internally or with bordering states since the Korean War. During that time, he met and fell in love with Olvido, a woman photographer whose interest in wars was not people, as was Faulques, but with objects, things. She was later killed by stepping on a land mine, which pushed Faulques over the edge. Faulques decided to retire to the coast of Spain, where he bought an old tower. His project was to cover the walls of the tower with paintings that depicted the horrors of war through the ages. Before starting on this, however, he studied previous paintings around the world by many of the masters on the same subject. He then narrowed down the number of painting he would borrow from to about twenty or so. His wars started from the beginnings of recorded history – the Trojan War – to the latest conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. After beginning his project, an unexpected visitor arrives at his door, and challenges the painter to remember him. Faulques struggles to remember the face, but cannot do so. The visitor then tells him that he was the subject of an iconic photo that Faulques took years ago in a war zone, and which won the photographer many prizes. Faulques then asked his visitor why he had come looking for him. The visitor answers, “Because I’m going to kill you.” Turns out that the visitor, Ivo Markovic, was a Croatian involved in that recent war and had just gotten out of a concentration camp. He, too, was familiar with the same horrors that the photographer had endured during his career. These common experiences lead to a long dialog between the two that centers around not just the future fate of Faulques, but the nature of war, love, and human cruelty. The novel is a stunning exposition on morality and a deeply affecting discourse on life and art. Recommended.
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Oct 10, 2010 Al Gellene rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Perez-Reverte's book reads like a dark dialog of Plato. Faulques, the central character, serves as a kind of teacher to Markovic, the former Croatian soldier who has come to kill him. As a former war photographer, Faulques has seen the worst that the world has to offer, has photographed it. He sees the world and man as basically evil. He has given up photography because he realizes that he has been seeking, but not finding, the image that will capture the essence of man's cruelty to man. Instead...more Perez-Reverte's book reads like a dark dialog of Plato. Faulques, the central character, serves as a kind of teacher to Markovic, the former Croatian soldier who has come to kill him. As a former war photographer, Faulques has seen the worst that the world has to offer, has photographed it. He sees the world and man as basically evil. He has given up photography because he realizes that he has been seeking, but not finding, the image that will capture the essence of man's cruelty to man. Instead, he is painting a mural inside an abandoned stone tower intended to do what his photography has been unable to do, tell the truth about war and man. We have war, he tells the Croatian, because war is in our nature. Love, laughter, beauty, serve only as temporary palliatives to man's brutal, animalistic destiny. Markovic seeks revenge against Faulques in retribution for the taking of a single one of his photographs. He delays his gratification because he says he wants Faulques to understand the consequences of his unintentionally harmful act and to learn more about the man whose casual act brought him so much pain.

The novel delves deftly into the issues of war, art and love. Faulques' lover, Olvido, accompanies him into his tours of hell. While he is engaged, seeking to capture the face of war, Olvido, whose name means oblivion in Spanish, seeks the experience of war to help her define herself, as a voyage of self discovery. She loves Faulques in her own way, but knows, as he does, that when she has learned about herself what she needs to know she will leave him.

It is not hard to understand why Faulques, having witnessed the worst about man, and of himself, has adopted such a dark view of humanity. The question of why man habitually descends into the brutality of war is age old. But to harbor hope, must we not reject Faulques' view?

Perez-Reverte never fully explains Faulques' character, why he has been so compelled by war. It is a weakness of the novel. At times Faulques and Markovic seem more like philosophical constructs than people. Nonetheless, the dialogue and the reminiscences of the characters is compelling, reminding us that the dark side of man is very real. Much of the action described by Faulques takes place during the war in the Balkans of the last part of the last century. The book is a good reminder that it is not just men of alien faiths and foreign cultures who are capable of unrestrained brutality.(less)

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Jan 15, 2011 Frank Romagosa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Spectacular and seductive, this book animates the theater of the war photograph in astonishing ways. We have all seen stories about the often anonymous people in war pictures, learn how the photograph came to be, cringe when we imagine the moment these photographs capture. We have seen photographs that anchor for our far broader public consumption the horror of war, the photograph a momentary entrance to worlds we do not experience.

If this novel is a meditation on the site of that photographic...more

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Aug 18, 2009 Kirstie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: RORY.

If I could give half ratings, this book would score a 4 1/2 stars...it has it's flaws but quite a few passages are quite brilliant.

The basic premise is the life story, looking towards the past, of a famous war photographer. He's isolated and painting a huge battle to rival anything he's seen in real life throughout all of the countries and people he's photographing at war.

But very soon within the first part of the book, he's confronted by a man who was the subject of one of his photos...the man...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reads

The Painter of Battles lives in a lighthouse, painting a mural of scenes of famous battles intermixed with personal horror from his own experiences. He is alone, until he is visited by a man from his past who comes to make him think about his life and his role in the atrocities that he experienced as a "tourist of disasters." The man has come to discuss and explore the nature of art as it relates to reality, the inexhaustible cruelty of man, and how war makes up a part of the human condition. He...more

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Mar 02, 2011 Antof9 rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Erica and Joan

Shelves: 2011-read, liberry, made-me-think, travel, braniacal

This was a recommendation from an old work friend. We really don't have similar reading tastes, but I like her brain, and she recommended The Historian, which I was surprised to enjoy, so I thought I'd give this a whirl. And I just don't know how to review this book!

There are parts of it that should get a 5, and parts of it I'd give a 2. The interactions between the painter and his previous subject were marvelous, deep, and made me think. But the reminiscent parts about Olvido ... bugged me. On...more This was a recommendation from an old work friend. We really don't have similar reading tastes, but I like her brain, and she recommended The Historian, which I was surprised to enjoy, so I thought I'd give this a whirl. And I just don't know how to review this book!

There are parts of it that should get a 5, and parts of it I'd give a 2. The interactions between the painter and his previous subject were marvelous, deep, and made me think. But the reminiscent parts about Olvido ... bugged me. On the one hand, I was intrigued by her story, and on the other hand, she was *too* enigmatic, *too* elusive, *too* ... the tortured, aloof artist.

When I quote text from a translated work, I'm never sure who should really get the credit, but there was some really beautiful and powerful writing in this book. Also, some deep things where I actually made a "hmmm" noise out loud as I was reading. Like ... he had mastered technique, but he lacked the essential characteristic that separates enthusiasm from talent.

And how about this random Peter Pan reference? I haven't been back to that city for a long time, but now I want to see it again. With you, Faulques. I want you to help me look for the shadow of that little girl, and later when we're back in the hotel, take needle and thread and sew it back to my heels...

And more deep: ... the towers of Manhattan, Hong Kong, London, or Madrid: any city of the many that lived trusting in the power of their arrogant colossi; a forest of modern, intelligently engineered buildings inhabited by people convinced of their youth, beauty, and immortality, certain that sorry and death could be kept at bay with the Enter key of a computer.

Something interesting to me in this book that was translated into English was the onomatopoeic words - they weren't written as we would in English. The camera click was "clic" and the noise flies made was "zum". Fascinating choice by the translator or the author or the publisher or the editor ... well, fascinating to me.

As I often do, I fixated on something small and unexplained. What was he taking pills for? They probably have greater and deeper meaning, and yet, the author didn't even say why he took them, and what the pain was. That kind of thing makes no sense to me. The other thing that came to me often was that throughout the book, the author calls Faulques "the painter of battles". It was obviously intentional, but since this book is the first time he is doing this, I couldn't quite figure it out.

Ah well. I'm recommending this one to anyone who has ever taken art history, or who is interested in photography. And to a couple friends specifically who I think would really enjoy the specificity and detail the author wove throughout the story.

This one will stay with me for a while.(less)

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Jul 24, 2012 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Arturo Perez-Reverte is one of my favorite contemporary authors. Although this wouldn't qualify as my favorite of his books, he is always worth reading because of the intriguing moral codes his characters possess.

Another great author, Amy Bloom, said that "a good novel should do more than entertain" and on that the basis Perez-Reverte's books would all make the cut. They give you something to think about, really think about.

This book isn't one you can read just for the plot. It is all about char...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Estevo Raposo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novela

Al oir el título de este libro, me imaginaba una novela histórica ambientada en el siglo XIX, protagonizada por un pintor bohemio que fuese de guerra en guerra, buscando escenas para sus cuadros. Sin embargo, El Pintor de Batallas se sitúa a finales del siglo XX y está protagonizada por Faulques, un fotógrafo de guerra retirado que trata de plasmar en la pared circular del interior de una torre la guerra tal y como la vió.

El hilo de la narración va saltando entre dos líneas temporales. Una de el...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Alexis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A former war photographer currently creating a big wall painting which sums up his experience is confronted with his past. What follows is an amoral, cold evaluation of warfare as viewed by an indifferent observer and the deconstruction of the human psyche through the conversations of the 3 main (and almost only) characters, to reach the inevitable conclusion of those who have seen enough, that there is no meaning, no blame, just a sequence of facts governed by the laws of chaos. Written by a fo...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Janne Paananen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ehdottomasti yksi Pérez-Reverten kunnianhimoisimmista kirjoista. Sukellus ihmisen pahuuden syövereihin sotavalokuvaajan silmin. Tarinassa entinen sotavalokuvaaja pyrkii maalaamaan syrjäisen tornin seinille sitä täydellistä valokuvaa, jota ei koskaan onnistunut ottamaan. Menneisyyden haamut palaavat vieläkin vahvempana kun yksi hänen aikoinaan sotatantereella kuvaamansa ja siten tietämättään surkeaan kohtaloon ajamansa mies palaa hänen luokseen. Tarinan keskiössä on näiden kahden ihmisen suhde ja...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Plucino rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-spanish

"Ars Scriptoria, Vis Moriendi"

Partiamo da ingredienti di base prestigiosi:
*Uno scrittore con piena padronanza della tecnica... un Accademico!
*Vicende probabilmente conosciute di prima persona (essendo ex cronista di guerra)... mica fuffa!

Risultato, a partire da queste premesse?
Un libro morto, artificioso, soffocante, sterile.

Nell'acquisto del libro, mea culpa sono stato frivolo - mi sono affidato al faccione dell'autore, che trasmette grande forza fisica. In realtà sono rimasto fiaccato, prosciu...more

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Sep 02, 2010 Ally Armistead rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Four out of five stars for "The Painter of Battles"--dark, beautiful, dense, intellectual. The story follows the odd final days of a retired war photographer, who has retreated into a watchtower in Italy to paint a ghastly war-themed mural and is encountered by a Croatian soldier he photographed years before.

Angry and grief-stricken at the loss of his wife and child, the Croatian solider--who holds the photographer's portrait of him accountable for their deaths--intends to kill him, exact reven...more

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Aug 06, 2008 Erica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008

Whew. This was a well-written book but man was it depressing. I don't think I cracked a smile from beginning to end. I'd like to read more of this author though; I hear his other books are more action packed. This was good despite a minimal plot. It was more philosophical and tended to get very deep at times.

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Apr 20, 2010 Joyce Lagow rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the many reasons why I love Perez-Reverte's books is that they follow no set formula or pattern except that they are all off-beat in their own way. But this one pushes the envelope, I think� and in the end, after recovering from what is a very, very dark view of human nature, I think it is among his best, if not the best.[return][return]Perez-Reverte, before he took up writing full-time, was a war journalist; the list of those he covered includes Bosnia, Croatia, El Salvador, Lebanon, and...more One of the many reasons why I love Perez-Reverte's books is that they follow no set formula or pattern except that they are all off-beat in their own way. But this one pushes the envelope, I think� and in the end, after recovering from what is a very, very dark view of human nature, I think it is among his best, if not the best.[return][return]Perez-Reverte, before he took up writing full-time, was a war journalist; the list of those he covered includes Bosnia, Croatia, El Salvador, Lebanon, and the Sudan, among others. These are some of the bloodiest horrors of modern times, since too many of them were civil wars which are always the most vicious.[return][return]The protagonist in Painter of Battles is Faulkes who, until very recently, has been a war photojournalist. Like Perez-Reverte, Faulkes has covered all the major and most bloody wars of his lifetime, and has been very successful, winning prizes for individual photographs and publishing books of his photos. But he is now retired. In his youth, he studied painting, but abandoned that when he realized he was not a top-flight artist. But now, he has taken up painting once more, this time to create a vast mural on the inside of an abandoned tower, which he has bought, on one of Spain� s capes. No ordinary mural, it depicts war in the form of battles, both from the standpoint of those who fight them and of those who suffer from them. It isn� t pretty.[return][return]Then one day, as he is nearing completion, one of his old photographs walks into his life.[return][return]That� s the matrix that Perez-Reverte uses in what is basically a staggeringly dark reflection on human nature as revealed through war. I found it shattering.[return][return]There� s no escaping the speculation that this is the summing up of the author� s own experiences of 20th and 21st century horrors. I don� t see how anyone comes through such experiences truly whole. If the book is even a pale reflection of what happened to Perez-Revere, then he did not escape that fate.[return][return]Because of its emphasis on painting, the book describes a number of artists and their own paintings of battles; it left me very curious about these works, and I do intend to follow that curiosity up as best I can, living as I do in a country that has no major art museum where major works of art can be viewed. But I will do so as best as I can on the Internet and by means of books. At least that is a life-affirming result of reading a book which is not.[return][return]I personally view this as a major work, but it isn� t for everyone.(less)

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Aug 03, 2011 Dariana Dudette rated it 5 of 5 stars

"The Painter of Battles" is the most discouraging, harsh and sad novel that Arturo Perez-Reverte wrote. But it's definitely the most lucid and ambitious.

A four days journey, full of stories about love, death, guilt and violence, with an unexpected end.

In the South of Spain, in a tower on the Mediterranean shore, a former photographer paints an enormous circular fresco: a battle landscape, where he wants to cover all the images he could not capture on his film. To accomplish his goal, he will be...more

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Jul 24, 2010 Gerri Leen rated it 5 of 5 stars

My brother sent this to me; I'm not sure I'd have ever picked it up on my own, but it is a phenomenal book. Set in modern day Spain, it is the story of a photojournalist who has specialized in war photos and who has given photography up to paint a mural in a tower. A surprise visitor sets this tale going down a road you would never expect. The first chapter is incredibly slow, but don't let that stop you because it actually gives quite a lot of good info, and as soon as the visitor gets there, i...more

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Jul 07, 2008 Rowena rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A war photographer retires to a tower on the coast of Spain, where he begins a mural of battles past and present, when he is interrupted by a stranger who wants to kill him. This is a novel of philosophy and art, and an exploration of love .

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Jan 24, 2013 Jan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an interesting book but on the jacket cover--I know, I know; it's only jacket cover hype--there are statements like, Pérez-Reverte is one of the best living European story tellers, and I think, something was lost in the translation.

Then I have that thought I have whenever I read a book originally written in a language other than English (the only language, unfortunately, that I am proficient in): How can anyone read Shakespeare in translation and still be reading Shakespeare?

But then, I...more

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Oct 28, 2009 Karlo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, own

This wasn't an easy read; the story revolves around a war photographer who retreats in solitude to paint a mural of war for no one to see; only to be interrupted by a stranger. The stranger was photographed by him during the Balkan war, and as a result, suffered greatly. The book is a dialog between them on the nature of that strange relationship, and the manner in which it might be resolved. Counterpoint to this dialog is the Painter's recollection of his relationship with a woman who he loved,...more

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1143742.The_Painter_of_Battles?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1266728949l/1143742.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1143742.The_Painter_of_Battles?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Painter of Battles by Arturo Pérez-Reverte[/url]

The Painter of Battles

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