- Arturo Pérez Reverte
- Spanish writers
- Spain culture
- Destinations
This member of the Real Academia de la Lengua Española (Spanish Royal Language Academy or RAE) and holder of the uppercase letter “T” for life in such place has had a long path both as a writer and winner of several awards.
Born in 1951 on the banks of the Mediterranean Sea in Cartagena, Spain; the sea became an influential source in his literary writings. His professional career began as a war correspondent, first as a journalist for the now extinct newspaper Pueblo and then for Radio Televisión Española (RTVE), a Spanish state-owned radio station.
A man of action and an adventurer, Pérez has covered the most important world conflicts in the last thirty years of the XX century, from Sahara to Bosnia, Lebanon, Iran, Irak, Nicaragua, etc. He captured life as a war correspondent in a brief book titled Territorio Comanche (2001), where he describes with great realism and crudeness the similarities between the wars he has witnessed along with other journalists, and in which the horror of violence repeats. All of these experiences have forged in him a cynical and ironic character which lacks faith in human beings. He has successfully transferred these same traits to the characters in his novels.
After facing management of RTVE and defending his program Código Uno, he decided to leave his journalistic career and become a writer in 1994. He had already published his first big success in 1988 titled El Maestro de Esgrima, which was later adapted for the big screen in 1992.
His success has been unstoppable and now dedicates his time almost entirely to writing adventure novels. Some of his works include titles such as El Club Dumas (1993), adapted to film by Roman Polanski under the title The Ninth Gate with Johnny Depp in the role of book detective Dean Corse; La Sombra del Águila (1993), La Piel del Tambor (1995), La Carta Esférica (2000) also taken to the big screen in 2007, and La Reina del Sur (2002) among others.
As a man worried by the reality of Spain, he created an adventure character to expose young Spaniards to the Spanish Golden Age. This character, Capitán Alatriste, is a veteran of the many wars Spain had intervened in during the XVII century. As a fine and troublesome swordsman for hire, he takes readers through journeys with historical personalities during the decadence of the Spanish Empire. Alatriste is Pérez’s alter ego and is also the main character in 6 novels:
· El Capitán Alatriste (1996)
· Limpieza de Sangre (1997)
· El Sol de Breda (1998)
· El Oro del Rey (2000)
· El Caballero del Jubón Amarillo (2003)
· Corsarios de Levante (2006)
Since 1991, Pérez is a columnist writer in the Sunday supplement of El Semanal, where he ironically and scathingly describes the world that surrounds him. He has compiled his Sunday articles in 2 books: Patente de Corso (1998) and Con Ánimo de Ofender (2001). He has also won national and international prizes that have helped him sell his novels around the world.
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