Arturo Pérez-Reverte releases new novel on Spanish Civil War

Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte has released a new 650-page novel titled ‘Ligne de feu’ (Fire Line), which focuses on the Spanish Civil War. The book provides a detailed account of the Battle of the Ebro, the final major offensive by Republican forces in 1938 that ultimately failed against Franco's Nationalists.

Pérez-Reverte, a former war correspondent who has covered approximately twenty conflicts globally, stated that he wrote the book to counter the way Spanish political figures across the spectrum use the civil war as a political instrument. He aims to portray the combatants from both sides as human beings—frightened young men and worried fathers—rather than political symbols. The author noted that his decades of experience reporting from war zones inform his descriptions of the physical and emotional realities of combat.