El Italiano / The Italian

«-Hay algo que me propongo hacer --dice ella al fin--. O quiz debo hacer, en realidad.
- Puedo serte til para eso?
-En cierta forma lo eres. Al fin y al cabo, t me ense aste a amar a los h roes.

Devuelve el libro a su lugar y afronta la mirada perpleja del padre.

-Sin ti nunca los habr a reconocido --a ade.
-No creo que yo...
-Oh, no, en absoluto. O tal vez tambi n lo fuiste alg n tiempo, antes de que nuestra Troya ardiera.

En los a os 1942 y 1943, durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, buzos de combate italianos hundieron o da aron catorce barcos aliados en Gibraltar y la bah a de Algeciras. En esta novela, inspirada en hechos reales, s lo algunos personajes y situaciones son imaginarios. Elena Arbu s, una librera de veintisiete a os, encuentra una madrugada mientras pasea por la playa a uno de esos buzos, desvanecido entre la arena y el agua. Al socorrerlo, la joven ignora que esa determinaci n cambiar su vida y que el amor ser s lo parte de una peligrosa aventura.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

ARTURO PEREZ-REVERTE'S NEW NOVEL

A story about love, sea, and war.

"His elegant narrative style masterfully joins his great command of the Spanish language. Perez-Reverte is a Master." -La Stampa

In 1942 and 1943, during World War II, Italian combat divers either sank, or severely damaged, fourteen allied ships in the strait of Gibraltar and the Bay of Algeciras. In this novel which was inspired by real events, there are only a few characters and situations that have been made up by the author. Elena Arbues, a twenty-seven-year-old bookseller, finds one of those divers passed out on the shoreline as she was walking on the beach. As she rescued him the young woman was unaware that this act would forever change her life and that love will only be part of a dangerous adventure.

«-There's something I intend to do," she finally says. Or maybe I really should do it.
-Can I be of any help for that?
-In a way you have already been helpful. After all, you taught me to love heroes.

She puts the book back in its place and meets her father's puzzled gaze.

"Without you I would have never recognized them," she adds.
-I don't think I ...
-Oh, no, I wouldn't have at all. Or maybe you were one too at some point, before all hell broke loose.