A Day of Anger by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Every week, we invite you to read something new, a classic or a book to rediscover.

While Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s new novel, The Italianbrilliantly retracing a little-known episode of the Second World War, was published during this literary season, we can happily delve into the rich bibliography of the author of the adventures of Captain Alatriste, a vast saga of several volumes reconnecting with the breath of serial novel. Of Club Dumas au Boat cemetery unnamed through the trilogy Falconthe great Spanish writer displays his talents in an impressive way. A Day of Angerreleased in 2008, occupies a special place in his work.

Neither fiction nor history book, the book is the meticulous reconstruction of the uprising of Madrid against the Napoleonic troops on May 2, 1808, an uprising marking the start of a war which lasted six years and which constitutes one of the founding episodes of the modern Spain. So here is the hour by hour revolt of the little people of Madrid joined by a handful of soldiers including captains Luis Daioz and Pedro Valerde – the highest ranking officers of the uprising and heroic defenders of the artillery park. Over 350 pages, we skewer, we eviscerate, we decapitate, we disembowel, puzzle style.

The courage of those who have nothing to lose

However, Pérez-Reverte does not force the horror and beauty ofA Day of Anger lies first in the painting without grandiloquence of these little people – men, women and children mixed together – driven by the thirst to fight and to avenge the flouted pride. They are fighting for God, king and country ” and possess the courage of those who have nothing to lose ” except our families, the little we earn and the honor “. And they will lose everything except honor. This book has no other ambition than to “ bringing together in a collective history half a thousand particular stories recorded in archives and books », specifies the author in a foreword, emphasizing that the part of the imagination is reduced “ therefore to the humble task of cementing together the pieces of the file ».

But this clerk’s precision that he demonstrates never spoils the romantic crackle of a story in which we come across anonymous people and characters that History will remember – such as Goya observing from his balcony the battles that he will immortalize. Finally, we savor the romanticism of the final four which often makes defeats more beautiful than victories.

Christian Authier

> A book for the weekend

A Day of Anger • Threshold