The Lone Man (Panther)

Years back, before his spell in prison, before he bought the hotel outside Barcelona, Carlos had been a hunted man, activist in ETA, the Basque Independence Movement, and involved in clandestinity and violence for the good of the Cause. So what is a responsible hotelier doing back once more in the old game? The fact is, after another ETA bomb outrage, the police are out in force hunting for two escaped gunmen, a man and a woman, and Carlos has accepted to hide them in his hotel. This is while the 1982 World Cup is being played in Barcelona and police are swarming all over the hotel to protect the Polish team that is staying there. Little by little it dawns on Carlos that the police are not there to protect the team but are actually closing in on their quarry. He has to get the hunted couple out and away. The Brazil vs Argentina match would be the time to do it ... The Lone Man is not, however, a simple crime thriller. It is a narrative set in a lunar landscape of fear. It is a many-layered novel about a frightened man fighting off his past, and the terror that has haunted his past. It is about life on the edge of an abyss.

Carlos, the protagonist of Bernardo Atxaga's novel The Lone Man, thought he had left behind his old life as an activist in ETA, the Basque Independence Movement, when he went straight and bought a hotel in Barcelona. Then, as one last favor to the movement, he agrees to harbor two terrorists on the lam. This gesture plunges him back into a familiar yet perilous world of playing cat-and-mouse with terrorists and police. Set during the 1982 World Cup championship, The Lone Man follows Carlos's attempts to smuggle his charges out of the country as it simultaneously delves into his memories of past actions. Part crime story, part psychological thriller, The Lone Man maps out a landscape of fear and the paralyzing effects of unresolved guilt.