Sidi

The new novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

He had no homeland or king, only a handful of loyal men.
They had no hunger for glory, only hunger.
Thus a myth is born.
Thus a legend is told.

«In him, adventure, history, and legend merge in a fascinating way. There are many Cids in Spanish tradition, and this one is mine.»
Arturo Pérez-Reverte

«The art of command was dealing with human nature, and he had dedicated his life to learning it. He hung his sword from the saddlebow, patted the warm neck of the animal, and glanced around: metallic sounds, the snorting of mounts, low conversations. Those men smelled of horse manure, leather, weapon oil, sweat, and wood smoke.

»Rough in their manners, extraordinarily complex in instincts and intuitions, they were warriors and had never pretended to be anything else. Resigned to chance, fatalistic about life and death, they obeyed naturally without imagination playing tricks on them. Faces weathered by wind, cold, and sun, wrinkles around their eyes even among the youngest, hands calloused from wielding weapons and fighting. Horsemen who crossed themselves before entering combat and sold their lives or deaths to earn their bread. Professionals of the frontier, they knew how to fight with cruelty and die with simplicity.

»They were not bad men, he concluded. Nor were they strangers to compassion. Just tough people in a tough world.»