Battalist. The Territory of the Comanches

A former military photographer, withdrawing from the world, sits in a tower and paints a fresco – his most important, absolute, final work, full of pain, blood, and war. A current military TV journalist and his cameraman are on the... Balkans waiting for the explosion of a bridge. The photographer is visited by someone whose life has derailed due to a single photograph, – and amid cautious discussions about world art, masking the grief of loss, the thirst for revenge, love, and despair, and shameful secrets, both have their eyes opened. The bridge is still intact, but the explosion will happen any moment now, and the journalists will shoot it, if they can, if they survive in this territory of the Comanches, where "the instinct tells the war reporter that he needs to slow down and turn back... where the roads are deserted, and the houses have turned into charred ruins; where it seems that dusk is about to fall... where you don't see sniper rifles, but they see you"...

"Battalist" and "The Territory of the Comanches" – two stories by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, one fictional and one documentary, about the same thing: the dirt, blood, fear, and grief of war in Bosnia and all other wars through the eyes of people whose job is to watch and show others what they have seen. Pérez-Reverte is a former war journalist who has worked in many hot spots, a celebrated author of brilliant historical, military, and adventure novels, translated into forty languages, creator of the Captain Diego Alatriste series, and holder of prestigious literary awards. He has much to say about war – he has been there, and not once. “In any war,” he says, “the same thing happens: somewhere, hapless, half-dead from fear, people in military uniforms of different formations shoot at each other, sitting in trenches, covered in mud, while some jerk in a cozy air-conditioned office, smoking a cigar, far from the front line, is developing the design of flags, creating national anthems, and installing monuments to the unknown soldier, thus profiting from all this blood and crap.” You cannot be a romantic in war. You cannot be objective in war. You cannot fail to understand that wars should not exist. "Battalist" and "The Territory of the Comanches" are equipped with extensive commentaries. "The Territory of the Comanches" is published in a new translation.