Press pack for Arturo Pérez-Reverte's 'Sabotaje' (2018)

"There are men born to command and men born to obey, but he is neither."

Arturo Pérez-Reverte (Cartagena, Spain, 1951) is one of the most distinguished authors of Spanish literature for his direct, cultured, and captivating style. The worlds and heroes he brings to life in his work have turned his surname into its own literary genre: "revertiano" the Perez-Reverte-esque, a territory populated by great tales of human passions, adventure and misery. What makes Arturo Pérez-Reverte's stories special are the fissures and contradictions of the people who star in them. Whether it's Lucas Corso in 'The Dumas Club,' the stiff-upper-lipped Jaime Astarloa in 'The Fencing Master,' Teresa Mendoza in 'The Queen of the South,' or the flawed Lorenzo Falcó, no reader emerges unscathed from visiting this portrait gallery.

Pérez-Reverte's worlds are masterfully constructed, because he knows them firsthand. He was a war reporter for twenty-one years, from 1973 to 1994. He covered more than eighteen conflicts in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Sudan, Mozambique, the Falklands, the Balkans, and Iraq, among other places. He has seen the best and worst of humanity; the wolves and the lambs, which he has managed to sculpt in literary marble. A language scholar, journalist, and writer, Pérez-Reverte is someone who doesn't trust in posturing of any kind.

In 2016, Pérez-Reverte chose the 20th century as his narrative subject—a time period already hinted at in his 2012 novel 'What We Become'—and embarked on a new cycle of novels starring Lorenzo Falcó, a former arms dealer and mercenary who works as a spy for the intelligence services of the Nationalist side during the bloody days of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). The inaugural novel in the series, 'Falcó' (2016), which fascinated readers and critics alike (over 300,000 copies sold), was followed by 'Eva' (2017). 'Sabotaje' (Sabotage) now completes what, for now, constitutes a trilogy.

The new installment in the series is set in the intellectual Paris of the 1930s, the epicenter of modern Europe, where the first signs of what is coming are already visible: a bloody war—one in which Nazism, fascism, and communism converge—while Ernest Hemingway boasts of his salon heroism in the cafés of Montparnasse and Pablo Picasso, paid by the Spanish Republic, paints "Guernica" in an attic at 7 rue des Grands-Augustins.

'Sabotage.' With this title, Arturo Pérez-Reverte presents the third novel starring Lorenzo Falcó, an elegant and well-built Jerez native, a former arms dealer who works for the Lucero Group, a branch of the National Information and Operations Service (SNIO), the intelligence agency of the fascist Falange, and of which he is its main star. However, Falcó wages his own war. His nature shapes his actions. He is a dangerous man. Someone loyal only to his own cause, and for whom the proximity of action injects a special lucidity into his veins. For him, living is preying, whether it's on women or dangerous missions. He knows how to savor the slow pleasure of those who carry a knife hidden in their hat while sipping a cocktail or emerging victorious from a dirty dungeon.

Arturo Pérez-Reverte introduced readers to his latest creation in a first installment published in 2016, 'Falcó.' He followed that up in 2017 with 'Eva,' a fascinating story set in Tangier, a cosmopolitan port where all kinds of characters come and go and where the most shady affairs are settled. In 'Sabotage,' the agent lives in Paris in the late 1930s, a metropolis where the cultural foundations of modernity converge, while simultaneously experiencing the electric early signs that anticipate its demolition with the imminent outbreak of World War II. It is the capital where the roots of the Enlightenment —the cradle of modern Western thought—mingle with fugitives, spies, and fixers; and intellectuals of the most distinguished stature—some of them just armchair activists—mix it up with others risking what little skin they have left. The action takes place just a few months after the Moroccan mission described in 'Eva.' It's the spring of 1937. Specifically, the month of May. A few days after the bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica by the German and Italian allies of the Spanish fascist rebels. The Spanish Civil War is about to reach its first year. 

Falcó knows nothing about Agent Eva Neretva, the Soviet spy who played tricks on this man who refuses to accept surprises gladly. Despite this, he cannot erase her from his memories. Falcó does not know whether Eva lives or dies. And although the memory of that woman spurs him on, the important thing is his next mission, which is two-pronged: on the one hand, he must turn a famous communist intellectual, Leo Bayard, into a traitor, and on the other, destroy 'Guernica,' the painting commissioned to Picasso by the Spanish Republic at the Paris International Exhibition.

If during the mission of the first novel in the series, which consisted of freeing José Antonio Primo de Rivera from prison in Alicante, Falcó strayed into political territory, and in the second he had to bring back thirty tons of gold from the Bank of Spain that a Navy ship serving the Republic was holding in the port of Tangier, now he will have to delve into intellectual Europe, a place of culture and art. And he will do so in its natural capital: Paris, the place of avant-garde creators and committed intellectuals, a boiling pot of geniuses and frauds: those who mix up art with imposture and revel, satisfied with themselves, in the propaganda of wars they have never fought. 

To achieve his goal, Lorenzo Falcó must transform into Ignacio Gazán, a young man from a well-to-do Spanish family living in Havana. The heir to a thriving family tobacco business, he is supposed to be a wealthy man, a supporter of the Republic, and an art collector. The help of an Austrian Abwehr agent will allow the Jerez native to reach Bayard and set a trap. The objective is to have him assassinated by the Soviets after a poisonous campaign to accuse him of being a fascist and discredit him as a major fraud before the international left. Added to this, of course, is the task of destroying Picasso's 'Guernica' by any means necessary, which entails approaching the Málaga native and striking hard. The spy will even make his way to Picasso's own studio on the rue des Grands-Augustins to accomplish his objective.

With even more action and speed than ever before, a greater dose of humor, political incorrectness, and artistry, this novel sees the reappearance of unique characters from the series, such as the Admiral (the head of the Lucero Group), and Paquito Araña, a hitman capable of painting his nails before torturing a prisoner. Old and dark ghosts return, such as Pavel Kovalenko, head of the Soviet intelligence services in Spain, the man who can both illuminate and obscure the whereabouts of Eva Neretva. Also appearing in 'Sabotage' are extraordinary new supporting characters: agent Hupsi Küssen, the Lucero Group's contact in Paris, the efficient Sánchez, photographer Eddie Mayo, and the unforgettable singer María Onitsha, as well as historical figures such as the artist Pablo Picasso and the actress Marlene Dietrich, or those inspired by them, such as Gatewood, a stand-in for the American writer Ernest Hemingway, or Nelly Mindelheim, behind whose figure we can glimpse the American patron Peggy Guggenheim.

In 'Sabotage', the reader will find a more lethal yet entertaining Falcó, someone who indulges in sex in the sleeping cars of the Hendaye express on its way to Paris, but also someone who will be visited by some demons. Lorenzo Falcó encapsulates the chiaroscuro of the human being that Arturo Pérez-Reverte knew during his years as a war correspondent. And in this novel, he offers a new, refined, and even more muscular version of the most effective predator. Nothing is superfluous in these pages. Seventeen chapters and an epilogue full of emotion and irony. A masterfully executed portrait of interwar Europe. Falcó returns as someone whose charm and cruelty allow him to land on his feet like a cat on every rooftop. In these pages he will kiss Marlene Dietrich, beat up Ernest Hemingway, and have his portrait taken by Pablo Picasso. That's what this novel, 'Sabotage', is like: yet another example of Arturo Pérez-Reverte in a state of grace, attempting to resolve some of the great mysteries of this series, while simultaneously opening up new ones. Because 'Sabotage' changes everything. It's a standalone novel that will encourage readers who haven't yet immersed themselves in Falcó's adventures to seek out the previous installments and will sow some questions for the already initiated.

Once again, the Spanish Civil War serves as the backdrop for a story that transcends a nationwide conflict and opens up a fascinating continent permeated by the currents of modernity. In Paris, galleries, art dealers, photographers, cafes, models, muses and lovers, as well as editors, journalists, writers, political commissars, and opportunists gather. It is a place teeming with life, while at the same time already sensing the dark forces of Nazism, which looms like an implacable threat. France is governed by the Popular Front, led by Léon Blum, leader of the Unified Socialist Party and the French Section of the Labour and Socialist International. But something already points to what the Vichy Republic and the Nazi occupation of France will be like. Paris is the hotbed where British MI6 spies, Russian intelligence services, Spanish nationalist and republican agents, as well as the dark minds of far-right movements, meet, trading in life and death like it was a card game. Fascism, communism, and revolts are a reality in Spain and the rest of Europe. The Basques plot separatist plans from San Sebastián and Hendaye, and the Catalans exact their own bloodshed, while nationalists and republicans bleed to death in a conflict that has barely lasted a year. Stalin perpetrates bloody purges among Trotskyists and anarchists, and Germany tests its arsenal in a Spain waging a bloody war, one that will serve as a laboratory for the bombing of Guernica in April 1937.

In this setting, France becomes the natural corridor that communicates all the rooms. 'Sabotage' begins in Biarritz and moves from Hendaye and San Sebastián to Berlin and a refined and modern Paris, exemplified by the Mauvaises Filles, a place whose name (the Naughty Girls) alludes to the liberal spirit of that decade; the legendary restaurant Le Dôme, one of the landmarks of the Montparnasse district—a place touched by the Art Deco spirit, with its stained-glass windows and ornate lamps—or the Boulevard Saint-Germain, but also the banks of the Seine, filled with barges under the arches of its bridges—the Pont Neuf and the Pont des Arts—visited by elegant gentlemen and beautiful models seeking to become an artist's muse or at least to survive the streets in the best possible way.

In 'Sabotage', we see the celebrated Picasso, for whom the Republic paid for a penthouse to undertake a work of art that would become a masterpiece, even though it began as political  propaganda. There's also a figure reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway, who imparts lessons in courage with a cognac in hand, or an adventurous aviator who inspires the character of Leo Bayard, a French intellectual who fought with the Republic while turning a blind eye to the Stalinist purges while sipping a glass of champagne. It will be precisely this individual whom Falcó must harm to advance this double mission, a task in which no one is what they seem, and his mentor and boss, the Admiral, will demand twice as much from him.

The Characters

Lorenzo Falcó

A former arms dealer and mercenary turned spy in the service of the National Movement, his story began in the first installment, published in 2016. Lorenzo Falcó is a seductive and handsome young man, hired by Falange's intelligence apparatus through the Admiral, the head of the Lucero Group, the rebels' dirty deeds unit. Falcó is a man of action and amoral in nature. Although not yet forty, this Revertian hero reveals himself to be considerably colder in 'Sabotage' than in the previous two novels. His humor is more refined, and his behavior more cruel.

The keys to his biography appear in the previous books, but resurface in 'Sabotage.' Lorenzo Falcó grew up in a wealthy Jerez family linked to wineries and wine exports (he is related to the Domecq dynasty). He's elegant and meticulous in every detail: from his silver cigarette case and the glass capsule containing aspirin for his migraines, to his spartan diet, his fondness for cocktails, and his mechanical reflex to check that his Browning pistol is ready to fire. Everything about him is lethal, from carrying a razor blade hidden in his hat to his way of waging bedroom battles. He leaves nothing to chance. Lorenzo Falcó is a true scoundrel. Expelled from the Navy beacuse of a sex affair, he's driven by adventure, women, danger, and adrenaline.

Once again, Falcó boasts of knowing and mastering the most luxurious environments—spas, hotels, and restaurants in 1930s Europe—but also the sordid places of Istanbul, the Balkans, Africa, and the various areas of interwar Europe, where he has claimed the lives of several men and women without even blinking, whether selling weapons, traveling to Catalonia to kill anarchists, or Third Reich Berlin, where he ended up training with the Gestapo. A wolf. A predator with gray eyes and an impeccable suit. There is an important character in Falcó's spirit, Manuel González-Osborne, Uncle Manolo, from whom the charm and elegance of the wayward secret agent seem to come.

If in the previous installment, 'Eva,' the readers learned about dark corners and key details of the biography of Lorenzo Falcó—a man who always sought to be somewhere else—in this one they will find a more lethal version of this politically incorrect hero. He will reunite with a woman named Maria Onitsha—an echo of that Moira Nikolaos he found again in Tangier—and will be constantly reminded of Eva Neretva, the NKVD agent who appeared in the first volume and who hovers over 'Sabotage' like a haunting shadow, a key player even in her absence.

Hubert (Hupsi) Küssen

An agent of the Abwehr, a German military intelligence organization. He will support Falcó in Paris in sabotaging the creation of 'Guernica,' a painting Picasso made on commission from the Spanish government for the Universal Exhibition. He will also be key in undermining the communist-linked intellectual Leo Bayard. Küssen will pose as an art dealer, a personal friend of Picasso, and will serve as a bridge to bring Bayard and his partner, the photographer Eddie Mayo, within striking distance of Falcó. Küssen is of Austrian origin, someone endowed with a strange sense of humor and irony. He stands out for his good nature and frivolity, although one physical trait speaks of his sense of commitment and of his former status as a soldier: a scar running from his chin to his neck, a reminder of the flamethrower attack that devastated his bunker in 1918, during the Battle of Arras, twenty years earlier, during the First World War.

Sánchez

A contact from the National Information and Operations Service (SNIO) who will assist Falcó in his mission in Paris. He is a middle-aged man, with a tired, civil servant-like appearance. He will be the one to warn Falcó of the many networks of spies and agents operating in that city during that strange time between the wars: from the Soviet, British, and German services scattered throughout the capital, along with other agents from the Nationalist and Republican factions, to the members of La Cagoule, a clandestine far-right organization commanded by Colonel Verdier. Sánchez suffers from a trench cough contracted due to toxic gas being deployed during combat. He possesses an unwavering sense of loyalty and duty. He is not an unscrupulous agent, and does not even consider murder as the first method to be applied. On many occasions, he questions the true necessity of some of Falcó's bloody procedures, whom he reproaches for having no loyalty or ideology to serve.

Leo Bayard

French intellectual. A distinguished and arrogant man about town, forty-two years old. A successful writer, aviator, and adventurer who sympathized with communism, although never a member of the Party. "A vain, conceited braggart," according to the Admiral. Bayard admired Stalin's government, which carried out purges against Trotskyists and anarchists during those years. Despite this, Bayard denied the Soviet regime's dark shadows and only proclaimed its virtues. A supporter of the Spanish Republic, he fought in the first phase of the Civil War, commanding an aviation squadron made up of volunteers he himself recruited, but as part of the Soviet policy of unifying international action, Bayard was relieved in Spain by André Marty, political commissar of the International Brigades. Back in Paris, he savored the glory he had gained from his combat missions while writing in support of the Republican cause. He prepared a book and a film about his Spanish experience and pressured Léon Blum's Populist Front government to persuade France to support the Republic in the war. Falcó's mission was to discredit him by linking him to fascists.

Eddie Mayo

A former English model, photographer, and artist, she is one of the most enigmatic and important characters in the plot of this novel. Lover of Leo Bayard, this seemingly delicate woman, blonde, with cold, penetrating blue eyes, possesses powerful sagacity and intuition. She was associated with figures such as Man Ray, for whom she once posed. She will be the only one to doubt Falcó. A woman of character and marked intelligence, everyone from the renowned Picasso, who was part of her inner circle, to Gatewood, a reflection of the American writer Ernest Hemingway, for whom she feels, in contrast, genuine contempt.

Maria Onitsha

As Pérez-Reverte describes her in these pages, she is a tall, powerful, and perfect woman. Perhaps the most beautiful Falcó had ever known. A woman of the Herero ethnic group, a tribe in Southwestern Africa almost made extinct by the German genocide, during a massacre even more brutal than that perpetrated by the Turks against the Armenians. Persecuted by the Nazis, this beautiful singer had to flee the Berlin cabaret where Falcó met her and settle in Paris. They meet again at the Mauvaises Filles, a venue run by Toni Acajou, a Turkish-Armenian gigolo who was forced to flee an increasingly sinister Germany.

Emilio Navajas

Head of Republican intelligence in Paris. Communist and veteran of the Murcia political prisons. A catalyst in a larger plot.

Malena Izaguirre

An agent on a previous mission for Falcó in Biarritz. A young woman from a well-positioned Basque family with a Carlist tradition. After the murder of her father and brother at the hands of Republicans in the September 25 massacre aboard the Cabo Quilates prison ship, docked in the Bilbao estuary, she decided to take direct action supporting the rebels. "She was a good girl," he thought. "Trustworthy, serious, and courageous."

The Admiral

Readers will meet again the man in charge of the strategic core of Francoist espionage: the Admiral. His military rank is always written in capital letters, as if replacing his given name. He is Galician, small, clever, grumpy, and a man of very few words. The Admiral, nicknamed the Wild Boar, maintains a relationship with Lorenzo Falcó that hovers between hierarchy and father-son relationship. His murdered son seems to revive in his dealings with this wayward agent, on whom he lavishes further reprimands—and rewards—in this installment. The two met when the Admiral was still head of the Spanish intelligence service in the Eastern Mediterranean. At that time, sensing the determination of the young man from Jerez, he recruited him.

Paquito Araña

He may be one of Arturo Pérez-Reverte's most unusual and fascinating supporting characters, thanks to his strange humor and dark violence. Gay, torturer, cold-blooded killer, and, at the same time, an eccentric individual capable of painting his nails before beating someone's jaw to extract a confession. His appearance in 'Sabotage' is only fleeting, but eagerly awaited for those who enjoy laughing at his shenanigans.

Lisardo Queralt

In this novel, the Falange's shadowy chief of police and security remains dormant. However, his presence is palpable. Perhaps because, as much as he can, he will always pose a threat to the careers of Falcó and the Admiral. Queralt is known as the Butcher of Oviedo due to his lack of scruples. Colonel Queralt is capable of anything.

Eva Neretva

Readers first met her as Eva Rengel, a blonde spy who posed as a member of the Falange Women's Section during the first installment of the series. In 'Eva,' the second novel, the Soviet spy Eva Neretva will be the NKVD's envoy in Spain to ensure that Spain's gold reaches Russia. She was chosen for this task 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 who plays a decisive role in this novel.

Critics have said...

"A thrilling succession of events and surprising situations told with a firm narrative pulse." Ángel Basanta, 'El Cultural'

"The Falcó-Tangier combination is irresistible [...]. Eva Neretva is one of Pérez-Reverte's great female creations." Jacinto Antón, 'El País'

"Few European writers know how to endow their novels with a world of their own [...]. The plot, as always with Pérez-Reverte, is superbly narrated.» J. M. Pozuelo Yvancos, 'ABC Cultural'

«His eyes are a video camera; his rhythm, that of the hands of a clock; his clarity, that of the edge of a sword.» Raúl del Pozo, 'El Mundo'

«Falcó's second adventure surpasses the first. The first person to seduce him is its creator, who writes his adventures with the enthusiasm with which his audience will read them […]. Falcó has the pleasure of reuniting with great archetypes of literary and cinematic fiction.» Justo Navarro, 'Babelia'

"Falcó and Eva would have been banned in the 1940s." Jorge Fernández Díaz, 'La Nación'

"Pérez-Reverte has brought a new and unexpected brilliance to the hitherto rather sleepy Spanish spy genre." Sergio Vila-Sanjuán, 'Cultura/s', 'La Vanguardia'

"Magnificent Eva, superior to the already brilliant Falcó." Juan Gómez-Jurado, 'ABC Cultural'

"Pérez-Reverte's glamorous spy." 'Reforma'

"Reverte's work in Falcó, a fast-paced, moral, voracious novel, reminds us that he sits among the great Spanish-language storytellers." Edu Galán, 'La Nueva España'

"Eva is so much a deep dive into the world of Lorenzo Falcó that he comes to us with his most characteristic features even more pronounced, and even doubling the stakes [...]. This is Falcó squared, or 2.0, or 1937 update. And the trend will remain, because the third novel is already on the way." Rogorn Moradan, 'Zenda'

Excerpts from the novel:

On Falcó's mission in Paris

"As you know," the Admiral continued, "and if you don't know, I'll tell you, that snob Picasso is in Paris. He has one of his studios there. His sympathies for the Republic are well known, as are his friends; so I won't go into that further. What matters is that he's accepted the commission, and he's been working on it for days. […] Your mission in Paris is twofold. In addition to passing Bayard off as a fascist agent and getting him killed by his own comrades, you have to sabotage Picasso's painting. […]

"Pardon?"

"What I said, damn it," the admiral growled. "Sabotage it, break it, burn it, knife it... Whatever you can think of. The point is to teach the Reds a lesson... Destroy that damn piece of shit before they take it to the Exhibition."

Sánchez filled the glass and drank it in one gulp, barely breathing. Then he leaned back in his chair. He fiddled with the pack of Gitanes. Finally, he put it in his jacket.

"The Spanish pavilion was scheduled to open this month, but it's impossible. The Exhibition itself, which should have already opened, is running late."

"A lot late?"

"Too much. The French government, criticized by the right, wants to garner public support based on its support for culture. They had hoped to open on May 1st, but it didn't work out. Of the forty-four invited countries, only the Russian, German, Italian, and a few other pavilions are finished. The lighting still doesn't work, and the streets are unpaved. It's a botched job. So Picasso will have time, I imagine."

"If nothing stops him."

"Of course." He gave Falcó another curious look. "If nothing stops him."

On Falcó's nature

“Unlike other men and women, Lorenzo Falcó was infused with a cold lucidity by danger. He almost enjoyed the feeling of solitude and danger up there, on a Parisian rooftop with an explosive device on his back […]. Men, he thought once more, are born, walk around, fight, and fade away. In the meantime, it was formidable to continue playing the never-forgotten games, living within the margins of one's own making: provided, of course, that one was prepared to pay the price when the bill came.”

“Do you believe in anything, kid?”

“I believe in a good cut in the groin, over the femoral artery; there's no tourniquet that can stop it.”

The Admiral shook his head, as if to avoid the smile that seemed to tempt his lips into curling up.

“How long do you intend to live that life?”

“As long as my body holds out.”

He squeaked, like a growl; the Admiral's laughter remained in the air.

"I know few spies and adventurers who, by the time they turn fifty, don't wish they'd been a village apothecary or a municipal official."

"I still have thirteen years to spare, then. I'll tell you about it, sir, when I feel like it."

"You, however, only fuck countesses and upwards. You're a star of Spanish espionage and the Boar's favorite. All you have to do is smile and everyone's asses turn to lemon water."

Falcó took the lighter out of his pocket, in his left hand, and his smile lit up with a reddish snap. There were sharks who smiled like that.

"I'm the one who doesn't stand up when the Caudillo speaks on the radio."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Falcó put the lighter away.

"I already suspected as much," he said.

"Don't you think that's enough?" he asked, lowering his voice even further.

"Enough of what?"

"Two dead people is enough."

Suddenly, Falcó's eyes seemed to harden into metal. Made of gray steel.

"In Spain, they die by the dozens or by the hundreds every day," he said slowly, almost gently.

"This is different."

"Listen... When you and your military friends rebelled against the Republic, I was busy with other matters. I didn't start this. For various reasons, I'm on your side, and I'm not protesting. I do my job loyally and efficiently. But don't come bothering me with qualms of conscience... If your guys paid for the orchestra, now enjoy the music."

"You're one of ours too," Sánchez objected, annoyed.

"That's where you're wrong. I dance alone."

"May I ask you a question?" Küssen ventured.

"Ask it and we'll find out."

"I understand Picasso has been kind to you."

"A lot. He even painted a portrait of me."