Literary recommendation: ‘The Italian’, by Arturo Pérez-Reverte; a novel where war, sea and love come together

By Freddy Aviles Zambrano | Historian

For many years the idea has been perpetuated that the Italian soldier participating in World War II was an ill-prepared, timorous and cowardly element, who was a burden for his German ally.

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Undoubtedly, during this conflict Italy was poorly led and prepared, but in terms of the behavior of its troops, this idea is totally wrong: the Italian soldier was dedicated, tenacious and brave, even if he was commanded by inept officers, and this is what the Spanish writer Arturo Perez-Reverte in his novel The Italian.

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A story that mixes reality and fiction, narrates a romance in the midst of the horrors of war and has as its protagonist an Italian commando and a beautiful bookseller who lives in a coastal town. The Italian is a member of a commando of torpedo men who have successfully sunk several British ships in the area of ​​Gibraltar and the Bay of Algeciras.

Based on the true story of the successful attack by Italian torpedo divers on British Navy destroyers anchored off the Rock of Gibraltar, Pérez Reverte rapidly immerses us in this adventure novel where love, war and the sea come together to delight us in reading it. A novel between fiction and historical reality, it demystifies an erroneous paradigm. Recommended. (OR)