Ardor guerrero

In the autumn of 1979, a young man dreaming of becoming a writer was conscripted into the Spanish Army. He was posted to the Basque Country. His journey on a dismal train crossing the Peninsula from south to north was the prelude to a nightmare. Portraits of Franco still hung on the barracks walls, alongside a message for every new recruit: "Rookie, you're going to die." That young man was Antonio Muñoz Molina. And like his fellow conscripts, he was expected to shed his identity, and, to a large extent, his humanity. A courageous, unvarnished memoir, a relentless document, a study in human entomology, a plea against intolerance, and an incisive chronicle of pivotal years in Spanish history, "Ardor guerrero" is a book that burns in the hands, one that readers, whatever their own starting point, will experience from the very first passage with unforgettable intensity.