THE MAN OF BLOOD

People of violent contrasts and excesses, the whiplash of lust, pride, ambition and revenge, provides a bitter concentrate and fills in the past of Francisco Pizarro, once The General and a hero of the Spanish Revolution, now- twenty years later- a man without a country, direction or attachments. He returns from Moscow, where he had been a sweeper on the subway, to Paris, where his former wife- Soledad- lives with the daughter he had not known existed; Soledad, whose brother he had killed and whom he had taken in fear, love and hate, married to ensure her escape. But in these few days he learns the extent of her deception then and betrayal now, is the victim of her contempt and cruelty, and returning to Spain- to join the anti-Franco forces with their daughter- Gabriela- never gets beyond the border.... De Vilallonga's first book to appear here (where it is will also be seen on the screen) translates brute force and instinctual passions into a harsh melodrama of modern times, more questionable for an American audience.