"VICTUS: BARCELONA 1714"

Victus: Barcelona 1714 was written by Albert Sánchez Piñol and it was published in 2013 by La campana editorial.

This novel is about a man, Martí Zuviria, who hires a German writer to basically write up his earlier life. The novel starts with an epic adventure he lived. After that, Martí had to go to the Bazoches castle (France) to prepare himself us a military engineer. After hard-work and the death of his great professor who was a famous engineer, Martí lived a battle in Almansa even though he didn’t pass the final exam which would make him an official engineer. After going back to Barcelona - where he met a woman –, he fought in a lot of battles in favour of the French monarchy. But that didn’t last forever. After the retirement of the ally, Martí decided to join Antonio de Villarroel’s army. Unluckily, after working so hard on the planning of the trenches, walls and other important war important elements, the war was won by the Borbon’s army.

The title of the three parts of the novel is very curious. The author based on the famous Latin expression Veni Vidi Vici to name each part, but, the last one is called Victus, because, on September 1714, it took place the fall of the city of Barcelona where the Catalans lost the war. That is also the reason why he named the book like that.

For the Spanish class, we had the opportunity to read a book, which apart from help us with the mark, it is a great excuse to read. In this second term, I decided to read this novel because it gained me a lot and I wanted to read it since the first term of school. I must say that It has impressed me a lot. A part from being a historical novel, which I like them a lot, this novel has something different. The author, from the firsts lines of the book, makes the reader feel like one of the characters, like if they were there, living the story.

The way the author made the character’s talk is amazing; the dialogues between each character made me being stuck with the book during days, without leaving it. But, the best thing of all is the way that the plot makes you think about the little details of life. The death of your loved ones, the struggle you suffer to become who you want to be and the most difficult sacrifices you have to do to make a better place for your loved ones are the top things that this book shows you.