This is not a fictional tale nor a history book, nor does it have, strictly speaking, a main character, as there were countless men and women involved in the events that took place in Madrid in 1808. Heroes and cowards, victims and executioners, history kept the names of most of them. The people, places, and events recounted here are real, as are much of the words that are spoken. In this book, Arturo Perez-Reverte transforms the obscure and individual stories recorded in books and archives into a collective account. The ...
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This is not a fictional tale nor a history book, nor does it have, strictly speaking, a main character, as there were countless men and women involved in the events that took place in Madrid in 1808. Heroes and cowards, victims and executioners, history kept the names of most of them. The people, places, and events recounted here are real, as are much of the words that are spoken. In this book, Arturo Perez-Reverte transforms the obscure and individual stories recorded in books and archives into a collective account. The author's imagination is therefore reduced to the mortar that joins the narratives. By making use of the most basic liberties that a novel allows, these pages bring to life the individuals who, for over two hundred years, have either remained anonymous or lived only in brief accounts of official papers.
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