Live in the Line of Fire
About This Novel
The Spanish version of "All Quiet on the Western Front"; for the first time, the Battle of the Ebro River in 1938 is restored from the perspectives of the Republican Army and the National Army; the Spanish national treasure writer and war reporter analyzes human nature and violence with scalpel-like strokes. The Battle of the Ebro River (1938) was one of the largest and most brutal battles of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). In July 1938, in order to reverse its strategic disadvantage, the Republican Army launched a major offensive against the National Army in the Ebro River Basin. In the early stages of the battle, they successfully broke through the National Army defense lines, but were eventually defeated due to insufficient supplies, inferior equipment, and the counterattack of Franco's army. This battle lasted for nearly four months, resulting in the death of more than 20,000 people from the National Army and the Republican Army. The elite Republican Army suffered all losses, and the situation in the civil war completely tilted towards Franco's National Army. The famous contemporary Spanish writer Arturo Pérez-Revite is based on real historical materials, adheres to a rigorous creative attitude, and uses calm and sharp brushstrokes like a scalpel to blend reality and fiction to create this masterpiece that examines the Spanish Civil War. From the night of July 24 to July 25, 1938, the 11th Mixed Brigade of the Spanish Republican Army, composed of 2,890 men and 18 women, crossed the Ebro River with the intention of establishing a bridgehead on the bank. Performing defense tasks here were elite divisions of Franco's National Army, including Foreign Legionnaires. There, the two sides launched a ten-day desperate struggle. From the Republican attack, to the confrontation between the two armies, to the National Army counterattack, the 10-day battle seemed to be a small preview of the most tragic Battle of the Ebro River in the Spanish Civil War - or even in history. "The Last Life" is a complex and cruel war narrative that shows the absurdity of war, the struggle between survival and morality of ordinary people caught up in the torrent of history, and the tearing of human nature in extreme environments.
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