Arturo Perez-Reverte, once a captain in the merchant marines, now hailed as Eco’s heir, is interviewed by the Baltimore Sun:

“Every one of my novels is a story of a lost soldier in enemy territory,” he said. “But instead of placing the person in a war, I put the person in cities, in history, in drug dealing, in libraries or in paintings. But they are always war stories.”

Perez-Reverte’s latest book, The Queen of the South, has been translated and will, as is increasingly the norm, arrive in India at a leisurely pace, taking almost longer than the former sailor’s ships would have to cover the distance. Aargh.