Press pack for Arturo Pérez-Reverte's 'Eva' (2017)

Arturo Pérez-Reverte was born in Cartagena, Spain, in 1951. His fictional universe is one of the most fascinating in Spanish literature. The worlds and heroes that his books bring to life have transformed his surname into its own literary genre: "revertiano" the Pérez-Reverte-esque, a territory populated with great tales of human passions, adventure, and misery. He knows them firsthand. In Arturo Pérez-Reverte's work, characters are everything, which is why 'The Adventures of Captain Alatriste' deserves special mention. This series follows a 17th-century Spanish soldier of the Army of Flanders, Diego Alatriste, a character with the power of a Sherlock Holmes, a Marlow, or an Hercule Poirot, whom readers have embraced and continue to embrace even after twenty years. The saga currently consists of seven books, compiled in 2016 by Alfaguara in the single-volume compendium 'Todo Alatriste'.

Starting this past year [2016], Pérez-Reverte began a new series starring Lorenzo Falcó, a former arms dealer and mercenary working as a spy during the interwar years in the first half of the 20th century. The inaugural novel in the series, 'Falcó', which captivated readers and critics alike (more than 300,000 copies sold throughout the Spanish-speaking world), now takes on the status of the inaugural novel in a narrative series with the release of 'Eva,' a novel that demonstrates that Arturo Pérez-Reverte is at the peak of his literary career.

Since 1991, Pérez-Reverte has written a weekly newspaper column, 'Patente de Corso' (Letter of Marque), which is published in more than twenty-five newspapers throughout Spain, Mexico and Argentina. His books have won over twenty million readers worldwide, they have been translated into more than forty languages, and have attracted the attention of film and television on several occasions, most notably 'Alatriste', a feature directed by Agustín Díaz Yanes and starring Viggo Mortensen. In November 2017, 'Oro' (Gold) was released, a film also directed by Agustín Díaz Yanes and based on an unpublished text by Pérez-Reverte. In 2003, Arturo Pérez-Reverte joined the Royal Spanish Academy, and since April 2016, he has been the editor and co-founder of the Zenda website for books and authors. He divides his life between two passions: literature and the sea. When he's not writing, he's sailing.

"For Falcó, words like motherland, love, or future had no meaning. He was a man of the moment, trained to be so. A wolf in the shadows. Eager and dangerous."

This is not an ordinary story, because he is not an ordinary character. Lorenzo Falcó is a dangerous man. Someone loyal only to his own cause, and for whom the proximity of the action injects an "intense and satisfied lucidity" into his veins.

Arturo Pérez-Reverte introduced him to readers in his first installment, 'Falcó,' and now he delves deeper into his territory in the follow-up, 'Eva,' a fascinating story in which Pérez-Reverte returns to that interwar world where mercenaries and spies roamed freely to profit from the carnage of others. It's the 1930s, a time in which fascism, communism, and revolts flourish.

Jerez native Lorenzo Falcó, the protagonist of this story of adventure and espionage, straddles both sides of the line that separates luxury hotels from the dungeons where other people die like dogs. He's someone whose hand doesn't flinch when it comes to killing, nor does it flinch when it comes to unzipping a beautiful woman's dress. That's Falcó: an unscrupulous hunter. Young, elegant, handsome, a womanizer, a scoundrel, and an adventurer, this former arms dealer works for the Lucero Group, a branch of the National Information and Operations Service (SNIO), the intelligence department of the fascist National Movement in charge of getting the dirty work done. At the height of the Civil War, Falcó lives his life with only one loyalty: that which he owes to himself and to his boss, the Admiral. The two met when the Admiral was still head of the Spanish intelligence service in the Eastern Mediterranean. At that time, Falcó was trafficking arms on his own. The Admiral had two options: terminate him or recruit him. He opted for the latter. Since then, Lorenzo Falcó has been the man at his service, his pawn on this board. And, why not, he could be the wayward son he insists on protecting.

After the first mission, which consisted of freeing José Antonio Primo de Rivera from Alicante prison, Falcó must now face a new task: bringing back to nationalist Spain thirty tons of gold from the Bank of Spain, which a ship serving the Republic is holding in the port of Tangier. The task is not easy, but it will become even more complicated. Characters and ghosts from the past reappear: a shadowy enemy, Lisandro Queralt, and a woman with whom Falcó can't quite make peace, Eva Neretva, alias Eva Rengel, or, in this case, Luisa Gómez. Ultimately, she is the same person he had already met: a woman capable of both killing him and saving his life. A cold and passionate Soviet spy who has opened cracks in Lorenzo Falcó's concrete-like armor, she will be his most dangerous obstacle.

Once again, the Spanish Civil War serves as the backdrop for a story that transcends regional conflict and introduces the reader to a world where those who jockeyed for position best end up ruling. In a war where everyone fights their own battle, Lorenzo Falcó makes his charming and lethal moves, efficient and amoral. After a few years working for whoever paid the most, Falcó traveled to Istanbul, Lisbon, Paris, Berlin, or the Lebanon. He's seen it all, done it all: from seducing beautiful and elegant ladies in silverware restaurants to closing, in those same places, or perhaps worse ones, a few deals—almost always shady—from which he always manages to emerge victorious. Falcó doesn't work for the Francoist side because he has an ideological position, even though everyone demands it of him. This isn't his war, nor is this a novel about the Spanish Civil War. The sixteen chapters of 'Eva' make that abundantly clear, once again.

With even more action and speed than 'Falcó,' with an even more acidic dose of humor and intrigue, 'Eva' perfects and embodies the world that Arturo Pérez-Reverte already presented in the first installment of a series that promises to go far. These pages also reveal new twists in Lorenzo Falcó's biography. He'll have to fight even more ferociously to stay alive, perhaps because his true opponent is, this time, a woman for whom he's alredy gotten into trouble. The greatest of these problems: that he cares about her.

In these pages, characters such as Paquito Araña, a hitman capable of painting his nails before torturing a prisoner, reappear, and new ones turn up, such as Moira Nikolaos, a Greek woman from Izmir, whom Falcó met when he saw her board a refugee barge during the Turkish siege. She comes to remind him of who he is and what he's been over the years. Was the world we knew of Falcó already fascinating? Yes, it was. Well, in 'Eva,' it becomes even more so. Because Lorenzo Falcó encapsulates that chiaroscuro of the human soul that Arturo Pérez-Reverte knew during his years as a war correspondent. All those traits, which he cultivated throughout a flawless body of work, he now pours into this series: one of the best literary versions of himself.

March 1937. Barely four months have passed since Lorenzo Falcó used his Browning pistol to save the life of Eva Rengel (or Neretva), the Soviet spy who played an unexpected card to trump the Jerez native in his mission to free José Antonio Primo de Rivera. Despite this, he saved her skin at the time. Setting her free caused him many problems. When they separated at the Portuguese border in the first installment of the series, she claimed that things were peaceful between them. But they weren't. Not at all. And this novel will prove it.

As the Spanish Civil War continues its tragic course, a new mission entrusted to the Lucero Group will take Lorenzo Falcó to Tangier. In this mixed-race city, where everyone is passing through, several factions and countries struggle to rule. It is a territory with too many players at play: the United States, Belgium, England, Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal all have their interests there. The territory is a breeding ground for spies and shady dealings. Falcó knows this all too well. He was there several times, most recently in 1934, serving the young Republic. Now he'll return, hired by the opposing side.

In recent months, the Spanish Republic has sent ten thousand crates of gold from the Bank of Spain to the Black Sea, and from there to the Soviet Union for safekeeping. A good portion of the shipment, however, never reached Russia. It was diverted elsewhere, to both official and private bank accounts of the Republic. Thirty tons remain. One hundred million pesetas in gold coins. Four million in pounds sterling, which a ship, the Mount Castle, anchored in the port of Tangier, is holding inside. The destroyer Martín Álvarez is waiting for it at the mouth of the river. Falcó must hurry and return that gold to nationalist Spain, no matter what. By fair means (bribing its captain) or foul (sinking the Mount Castle).

It will be Lorenzo Falcó (who was dishonorably expelled from the Naval Academy for sleeping with a teacher's wife, for added irony) who will have to resolve such a delicate operation. Francoist policeman Lisardo Queralt, who is vying for power in the Nationalist intelligence apparatus, is sniffing around the matter too. He wants three things: total command of the spy service, the Admiral's head, and, of course, Falcó's, with whom he has a score to settle. To save the life of the Russian spy Eva Neretva, whom Queralt himself was preparing to crush, Lorenzo Falcó killed three of his men, making him look like a fool on his own turf. If this operation goes wrong, someone will find himself in trouble. An additional matter complicates things. Aboard the Mount Castle, the ship guarding the gold due to travel to Odessa, there is a woman sent by Pavel Kovalenko, head of the NKVD in Spain, to supervise and ensure the shipment's arrival in Russia. That woman is none other than Eva Neretva.

There are enough ingredients in this novel to keep the reader focused on what happens throughout its nearly four hundred pages. 'Eva' begins in Lisbon, but then it moves on to various other locations: Seville, Salamanca, and Tangier. The readers will walk with Falcó through the Zoco Chico bazaar; they will look at the Moorish and Jewish hides of leather, slippers, and haberdasheries on Christians' Street; they will enter bars where Edith Piaf's "Mon légionnaire" or Jean Sablon's "Mélancolie, un jour s’achève" are playing; they will bump into oiled-skinned Moorish women, European ladies, French and English sailors, but also Spanish legionaries. The place is alive with the cosmopolitan murmur of voices and conversations in half a dozen languages.

In this port where different powers share authority and corruption, everything takes on the murky tone of a disputed frontier. There, Lorenzo Falcó navigates without a problem. He already knows these places: he has been to the souks of Africa, to Central European taverns, to brothels in Alexandria, and to South American cantinas. He navigates Morocco with the same ease as he would at the Ritz in Paris or the Plaza in New York. Of course, he never takes his eyes off the door of the cabaret where he's sipping a drink, feeling for the razor blade hidden in the sweatband of his hat, and always keeping his pistol (a Browning FN, of course) close at hand.

In this setting, two men and their vessels take center stage. The ships in this story are characters as powerful as those who command them, two straightforward and proper seamen: Fernando Quirós, the merchant marine captain in command of the Mount Castle, a vessel serving the Republic, and the war frigate captain Antonio Navia, commander of the Martín Álvarez, the Nationalist destroyer waiting until the deadline to sink the Mount Castle, if necessary. Falcó will have to reunite the two and convince Quirós to switch sides and hand over the cargo. That is, if Eva Neretva and her people don't stop him first.

Everything will have to be done on land, in a place teeming with untrustworthy envoys, enemy crews, as well as Republicans and Nationalists, who are sometimes capable of putting aside their differences for one night only to beat up a gang of Englishmen who call them dirty Spaniards. But there is more, much more in that city: ruffians and thugs, prostitutes who click their tongues at the doors of taverns, Moors who sell someone's head for two coins and the whole body for just double that amount; but also simple and chastened people and, of course, the long shadow of Eva, Falcó's true opponent in this story. The opportunity is a propitious one for Pérez-Reverte to bring up the codes of seafarers on land, while simultaneously surveying that fauna capable of anything, whether dying or killing.

The Characters

Lorenzo Falcó

A former drug trafficker and mercenary turned spy in the service of the Lucero Group, a section of the National Information and Operations Service (SNIO) that is part of the intelligence apparatus of the fascist National Movement. A thirty-seven-year-old man of action, he is amoral in his conduct. He is elegant and meticulous in every detail of everything he carries with him, from his silver cigarette case, or the tube of aspirin for his migraines, or the cufflinks he chooses carefully, to his Browning pistol. Lorenzo Falcó is a true scoundrel. He is driven by adventure, women, danger, and adrenaline. However, his ability to act with determination and cold-bloodedness makes him lethal. "He is a Swiss Army knife inside a bar of ice [...]. I don't know anyone in this world we live in who can handle the cruel and the dark as naturally as you do. You're a perfect actor, a consummate scoundrel, and a dangerous criminal." This is how his boss, the Admiral, defines him.

A member of a wealthy family from Jerez, linked to wineries and wine exports, Falcó left home to dedicate himself to arms trafficking. In this novel, the reader will gain more insight into the environment he has renounced. He doesn't want to see his mother or his brother Alfonso, who, since their father's death, has run the family business: the production of Tío Manolo fine wine and Emperador cognac. "Following the fascist uprising, he had regained ownership of everything, after the escape or execution of the unionists who had turned the business into a chaotic workers' cooperative. Lorenzo Falcó and his family hadn't seen each other for more than ten years. Not even writing to each other. The episode of the prodigal son containes some inaccuracies, you know: there is a certain class of black sheep that never returns home. Nor did Cain always confront Abel. Lambs and vegetables are for you, my dear. Enjoy them. Sometimes, Cain simply packs his bags," writes Arturo Pérez-Reverte to outline Falcó's family history.

In this novel, the reader will discover hidden spots and key details about Lorenzo Falcó's biography, data that sometimes point to loneliness and cynicism in someone who, despite being capable of cutting throats with precision and without hesitation, possesses old flaws. Two women, each for a different reason, will reveal the character fractures that humanize Falcó: Eva Neretva and Moira Nikolaos. Both expose him, crystallizing the spirit of a man who always sought to be somewhere else. Both will show him that there are places from which one cannot return. And he knows it.

Eva Neretva

Readers first met her as Eva Rengel, a blonde spy who posed as a member of the Women's Section of the Falange movement during the first installment of the series. This time, Soviet spy Eva Neretva (whose alias this time is Luisa Gómez) will be the NKVD envoy in Spain to ensure that Spain's gold reaches the Soviet Union. She has been chosen by Pavel Kovalenko, Soviet advisor and head of the NKVD's Special Tasks Administration in Spain, a man with a reputation as a ruthless criminal. That is Eva's mission: to prevent any enemy negotiations with the captain of the Mount Castle and, of course, its sinking at the hands of the Nationalists. Neretva has the courage and composure to do it. She's accompanied by a Spanish political commissar, Juan Trejo, and another foreigner, Garrison, but she, without a doubt, is the one in charge of the mission to defend that vessel.

Initially presented as the daughter of an English engineer married to a Spanish woman, Eva exudes confidence and courage. She is beautiful, intelligent, and merciless. She is ideologically committed and unwilling to fail her people. She reveals herself to the reader as an unsolved enigma: a woman capable of beating and torturing, and at the same time piercing the soul of someone who seems to have none: Lorenzo Falcó. She is the only person—the only woman—who has bested him. Their relationship is halfway between a love story and a fight for survival. Eva always proves far more dangerous than the reader and Falcó himself can imagine. "Even asleep, naked, defenseless, vulnerable at that moment, Eva Neretva remained an enigma," Falcó asserts.

The Admiral

Readers will reunite with the man in charge of the strategic core within Francoist espionage: the Admiral. His military rank is always written in capital letters, as if replacing his given name. Small, clever, grumpy, and a man of few words, the Admiral maintains a relationship with Lorenzo Falcó that oscillates between respect for his hierarchical rank on Falcó's part and paternalism on the other. The two met when the Admiral was still head of the Spanish intelligence service in the Eastern Mediterranean. At that moment, sensing the determination of the young man from Jerez, he recruited him. In this second novel in the series, we learn more about his biography: he has lost a son, an absence that leads the reader to understand why he tends to regard Falcó with unusual tenderness for someone as distant as him.

Colonel Lisardo Queralt

Head of police and security for the secret Falange. He is known as the butcher of Oviedo due to his lack of scruples and, even worse, his lack of ethical code. Queralt is capable of anything. He has it in for the Admiral, because he yearns to seize power once all the intelligence services of the National Movement are reunited. Added to this is an additional element: Lorenzo Falcó has dealt a severe blow to his authority. That's why he won't hesitate for a minute to bring them both down. His boss and him.

Paquito Araña

"Can I receive reinforcements, if necessary?" Falcó asks. "You can. Who are you thinking of?" his boss replies. "Paquito Araña, as long as he's not busy murdering someone." This is how Arturo Pérez-Reverte presents what may be one of the book's key supporting characters, due to his humor and dark violence. Gay, torturer, cold-blooded killer, and, at the same time, a picturesque individual capable of painting his nails before beating someone's jaw to extract a confession.

Captain Fernando Quirós

Captain of the merchant navy and in charge of the Mount Castle, a ship committed to the Republic carrying thirty tons of Spanish gold bound for Russia. Quirós is from Asturias, in Spain's northern coast, a man of proven courage and skill as a sailor, so skilled that he managed to elude several Spanish destroyers before reaching Tangier. Certain death awaits him, as the Martín Álvarez has instructions to sink him. Falcó will try to negotiate to get him to give in. Quirós's principles, however, are as firm as his vocation for the sea. Taciturn and distrustful, "Captain Quirós seemed as unfriendly as his ship: wide, hard, flat, small, and compact, like a brick," describes Arturo Pérez-Reverte. Quirós's identity merges with that of the vessel he commands. That explains everything. "There was something special about the way he had said 'my ship,' and Falcó understood that he was referring to a territory outside of land jurisdictions. It was obvious that it wasn't pride or vanity, but a simple statement of an objective fact: the Mount Castle was his ship, that of Fernando Quirós, merchant marine captain, the only master on board after God. And now, secular as it all was supposed to be, the Republic simplified that hierarchy even more."

Captain Antonio Navia

Commander of the nationalist destroyer Martín Álvarez, a vessel ordered to sink the Mount Castle if, upon reaching the deadline, its captain does not hand over the gold. Navia is a curt and proper sailor, formal and with a rigid manner. "I am a sailor, I am Catholic, and I love Spain. I rebelled against the chaos of the Republic for my ideas, and I wage war to fulfill my duty, not to please my superiors," he describes himself to Falcó and the reader. Both Navia and Quirós share a code of conduct. They respect each other even when circumstances place them at opposite ends of the same line: hunter and prey. Both, like the ships they command, are honest and fulfill their duty.

Moira Nikolaos

At fifty-four, she is still an attractive woman, though chastened by the passing years and the life she had led. Once, this Greek woman was amazingly beautiful and captivated Falcó with her character and poise. He met her in Izmir, when he saw her board a refugee barge during the Turkish siege of that city in 1922. At that time, Moira lost much more than her arm, of which she now displays only a stump. Her son and husband died in the siege of the city. She is all scars, her own and other people's. A lover first, a faithful friend later, Moira's affection for Falcó is a long-standing one. She will be the one to help him in Tangier, but, even more so, she will reveal the flaws in the Jerez native. "Don't you get tired of living like this?" Moira will ask Falcó, who, for the first time since readers have known him, will look back into the past.

Ramón Villarrubia

A radio operator, police officer, and member of the Information Service for North Africa (SINA), one of the national espionage agencies controlled from Salamanca by police and security chief Lisandro Queralt. Villarrubia lives up to his badge and his duties. He will accompany Falcó to facilitate radio transmissions in Tangier. And like Ginés Montero or Fabián Estévez from the first novel, this character introduces a little island of rectitude into a war where survival comes before anything else.

Chesca Prieto

The magnetic Chesca Prieto reappears in 'Eva.' The strong-willed, bright-eyed woman who has captivated Lorenzo Falcó since the first novel, the intelligent and suspicious wife of an infantry captain on the Nationalist side once again crosses paths with the spy, who this time goes a bit further in his approach. Enough to provoke a confrontation (somewhat unusually) with Pepín Gorguel, captain of the regulars, Count of Migalota, the husband of the inaccessible prey that Falcó has been pursuing since the first installment.

Arturo Pérez-Reverte: "Falcó is very Revertian; my heroes never defect"

The writer and academic publishes 'Eva,' the second novel in his series starring the spy Lorenzo Falcó. Things weren't peaceful between Eva and Falcó after the first; and judging by this new installment, they won't be for a long time. March 1937. Four months have passed since Lorenzo Falcó used his Browning pistol to save the life of the Soviet spy who played an unexpected card to thwart his first mission for the Lucero Group, a department of the fascist National Movement's intelligence system.

While the Spanish Civil War continues its tragic course, a new mission takes Lorenzo Falcó to Tangier, a city that serves as a crossroads for spies, illicit trafficking, and conspiracies. Falcó must convince the captain of a ship serving the Spanish Republic, loaded with gold from the Bank of Spain, to switch flags and bring the cargo to the Nationalists. The matter wouldn't be so complicated if it weren't for one detail: a woman is traveling on board to ensure the shipment's arrival in Russia. She is Eva Neretva.

In this second novel in the series dedicated to Lorenzo Falcó, Arturo Pérez-Reverte goes all out. There's more humor, more incorrectness, adventure, and struggle. There are sixteen chapters written with mastery and force. Enough to grip the reader, like a hunter with his prey. Nationalist, Republican, and Soviet spies, men and women, dark streets, souks, filthy cabarets, and luxury hotels. Some characters return, from the Admiral to the ominous Lisardo Queralt. The ingredients are ready, and Arturo Pérez-Reverte talks about them in this interview.

—'Eva' is the second installment in the series. There's more action… and there's the sea, of course.

—It has that. Although it's not a sea novel. My maritime novels are 'The Nautical Chart' and 'Cabo Trafalgar' (Cape Trafalgar). What's true is that, for a long time, I've had a novel about sailors on land in mind. 'Eva' gave me the opportunity to write it. I'm a sailor myself. I've been sailing for twenty-three years. What I respect most in the world, above all else, is a merchant marine captain. I grew up among them, and I most likely feel that reverence towards them for that reason. The ships in this novel have soul and character. They have personality. There are good ships. Bad ships. Clumsy, stupid, arrogant, intelligent ships...

—In this novel, we begin to learn more about Falcó: his family, whom he doesn't see anymore, his loneliness...

—Falcó evolves. The good thing about a series is that you get to know the characters better. The narrative demands a greater embodiment. We've already seen him in some type of situations, so now we have to see him in others. Delve deeper into the character.

—In 'Eva,' Falcó has to fight more, expose himself more, but there's also more humor.

—Yes, there's a very Falcó-type humor. A dark, cynical humor. It's not a sympathetic humor. Falcó is cynical, selfish, handsome; all of that generates a kind of resigned fatalism that I've lent him.

—Moira Nikolaos, this old lover and friend, will help the reader learn more about Falcó.

—What happens between Falcó and Moira happens in life: a romantic relationship may or may not end, sex may disappear from the equation, but a complicit affection remains between people who understand each other. That lasts longer than love.

—She knows him. She even mentions an episode in Falcó's life that unsettles him.

—Falcó is a tough guy, and also dangerous. Very dangerous. But like all human beings, he has his dark corners. His childhood. His frustrations. Fears. Loneliness. In the presence of someone he trusts as much as he does with Moira, he relaxes and some of that comes out. But he immediately realizes it and stops. "This makes me vulnerable," he thinks, and then he gets up and leaves.

—Let's talk about the central woman in this story. Eva proves to be even colder and stronger than Falcó.

—Women are always stronger. Falcó is a dangerous and tough man, but Eva has opened some cracks in him, and he's aware of that.

—You could say that, in their relationship, Eva leads one to zero.

—Eva, as a woman, takes things seriously, much more than a man. She has that implacable firmness. There's nothing more dangerous than a woman who believes in something: in love, in her children, in succeeding in life... She focuses all her strength on what she truly desires. That's why women achieve so many things, because they dedicate much more effort and have that focus on the goal at hand, while men become scattered.

—Once again, the militant Eva continues to reproach Falcó for not believing in anything.

—Because she has faith in revolution and communism. At that time, the "isms" (fascism, communism, Nazism) were perceived as solutions to serious social and political problems. That's why there were many who believed in good faith. Eva is one of those. They were people who paid dearly for it: with exile, life, loneliness, prison. That's precisely why Eva reproaches Falcó: "You're a playboy, and I'm a woman of faith. I kill, I can torture, but I do it because I know I'm changing the world for the better. You, son of a bitch, do it because for you it's an adventure. You don't have a noble goal to justify it." That's the reasoning. Something like "your wickedness is unjustifiable, but mine is." It's a serious moral dilemma.

—Sex and physical combat overlap in them. This time, literally.

—This isn't a politically correct novel, of course.

—Eva appeared like an earthquake and, as such, disappeared again. Will they ever be at peace?

—That's the question. There are several clues in 'Eva'. Falcó is sexist, yes. In keeping with its time, of course. But I challenge anyone to create a character as powerful as Eva, a character as feminist as she was when being one could cost you your life. And, as you can see, there's a spark between the two of them. Because life is that complex. Some uninformed people call me sexist because they haven't read a single one of my novels. All they need to do is read 'Queen of the South'  and they will shut up. Well, Eva is a true feminist, not a social media folklore merchant. In her behavior, in her ideology, in her attitude, in her fight... It's not a literary invention; there are women like that.

—Falcó and women: in this installment, we'll take a closer look at that side of him…

—He's a predator. He's handsome, dangerous, brave, and a man who loves women. And he's handsome enough to be able to have them. His attitude toward them is that of a hunter. That's the way it is. Is that politically incorrect? Of course it is, but the world has always been like that. Falcó's political incorrectness is precisely one of the aspects I like about him. It's easier to build a hero without flaws, who respects women, who doesn't torture or kill. This isn't the case.

—Does Falcó summarize the chiaroscuro of human beings that you've seen in the war?

—This is a novel that takes place in the real world. People have forgotten that the world is a very dangerous place: people rape, kill, torture, steal, and even those who claim to be very upright, when it's their turn, do it. When everything goes to hell, people become very dangerous. My novel moves in that real world.

—Why Tangier? What does it add compared to other places?

—Tangier was deliberately chosen: a place where power is corrupt and everyone can sell, buy and bribe. I could have chosen Algeria or any other place, but Tangier seemed perfect to me.

—In his supporting characters, there are opposites: from Rexach, the Nationalist liaison, a sly and traitorous man, to Villarrubia, an upright man.

—That kind of person is everywhere, the coward who seeks to profit and the innocent who is swept away by circumstances.

—Is Lisardo Queralt a much darker person than we thought?

—He's the real bad guy. Queralt symbolizes many things to me. I can have a drink with Paquito Araña, with Garrison, with Eva, but not with a son of a bitch like him. Because there are sons of bitches who have traits that humanize them, but Queralt doesn't. There are people, like him, who are compact in their evil. You can't learn anything from them.

—Paquito Araña returns, a character who paints his nails to torture people, and who introduces humor and cruelty in equal measure.

—This is where Paquito Araña thrives. Supporting characters are fundamental. John Ford taught me that the sergeants are the ones who make the movie. John Wayne may be starring, but without Victor McLaglen the movie wouldn't hold up. I give a lot of importance to supporting characters. Paquito Araña has many contrasts. He's homosexual and a torturer. He's very gay, but he comes from a violent past and is as dangerous as anyone. He's capable of painting his nails and then committing the worst brutality. When he slits throats, he does it with absolute coldness, without passion. There are many important supporting characters, like the Admiral, and the captains I also really like.

—Captains Navia and Quirós, as characters, have a code.

—There's something peculiar about seafarers. If you look at the history of naval warfare, war at sea is crueler, because the sea is more merciless. There's a stronger code among sailors than among landed personnel. There's camaraderie; even if they're enemies, they come to each other's aid. Sailors are very Revertian, in that sense. I really wanted to see characters like them appear in a civil war as violent and cruel as ours, with codes of humanity and honor. Those two characters symbolize them.