That's the bad thing about these wars. That you hear the enemy calling his mother in the same language that t u. During the night of July 24-25, 1938, the XI Mixed Brigade of the Army of the Republic crossed the river to establish a bridgehead at Castellets del Segre. Masterfully combining fiction with historical data and personal testimonies, Arturo Pérez-Reverte places the reader, with overwhelming realism, among those who, voluntarily or by force, fought on the battle fronts of the Civil War.