Blood and Sand

«Blood and Sand» — bullfighting, an incomparable matador, Spanish color. The famous torero Juan Gallardo, a man from the lower classes, basks in the love of the people. The crowd roars with delight as the matador teases an enraged bull and at the last moment dodges its horns. Gallardo plays with fate. Each time he steps into the arena could be his last, and this thought relentlessly haunts him…

The acclaimed torero wants to get everything out of life. Including the mysterious aristocrat, señora Sol — a lover of thrills and exoticism. But bullfighting is cruel. The bull takes its toll, and Gallardo finds himself on the brink of life and death. Returning to the arena after an injury is hard. Especially when the fear of the bull constantly haunts him, while the spectators demand spectacle and death-defying courage.

The poetess Margarita Pushkina wrote the song «Torero» for the rock band «Aria», inspired by the novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez «Blood and Sand».

This is a philosophical-psychological novel. Behind the apparent simplicity of the narrative about the life of the famous torero Juan Gallardo lie complex questions about the essence of people and human cruelty.

«Everyone was sure that Gallardo was destined to die in the arena from the horns of a bull, and it was this certainty that made the audience applaud him with bloodthirsty enthusiasm».