The Fencing Master by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a truly remarkable book that hooked me from the first paragraph (which so rarely happens that I actually bought it without a second thought!).
Highly recommended!
Slow burning, brilliantly executed, stunningly graphic and beautiful, emotive and powerful.
I seriously want to hug the Fencing Master himself right now…
*sigh*
This piece caught me most of all, because YES!:
“We find ourselves in the last of the three generations history chooses to repeat every now and then. The first generation needs a god, and so they invent one. The second erects temples to that god and tries to imitate him. And the third uses the marble from those temples to build brothels in which to worship their own greed, lust, and dishonesty. And that is why gods and heroes are always, inevitably, succeeded by mediocrities, cowards, and imbeciles.”
Reminder: Get The Secret Service Agent at 50% Off