La carta esferica (Spanish edition) [Paperback]

Arturo Perez-Reverte (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2000

A nautical chart can be much more than an indispensable instrument to navigate from one place to another; it is an etching, a page from history, and sometimes even an adventure novel.

Just published by Alfaguara, La carta esférica by Arturo Pérez-Reverte is the story of a sailor without a ship, exiled from the ocean, who meets a woman who returns to him the adventure of the sea.

Never have the ocean and its history, the science of navigation, adventure and mystery, been combined in such an extraordinary manner as is done in this novel. Only Arturo Pérez-Reverte could have accomplished this.

Blurb in Spanish:
Un marino sin barco, desterrado del mar, conoce a una extraña mujer que posee, tal sin saberlo, respuestas a preguntas que ciertos hombres se hacen desde hace siglos.

Nunca el mar y la Historia, la ciencia de la navegación, la aventura y el misterio, se habían combinado de modo tan extraodinario en una novela, como en La carta esférica. De Melville a Stevenson y Conrad, de Homero a Patrick O'Brian, toda la gran literatura escrita sobre el mar late en las páginas de esta historia fascinante, e inolvidable.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With award-winning intellectual thrillers like El club Dumas (The Club Dumas, Suma de Letras, 2000) and La tabla de Flandes (The Flanders Panel, Debolsillo, 2000), former war correspondent Perez-Reverte has emerged as one of Spain's most popular and most translated authors. This new work follows the fortunes of a sailor who meets the enigmatic T nger Soto and is drawn into her obsessive search for the mysterious cargo from the Jesuit ship Dei Gloria, which was lost off the Spanish coast in 1767. While his characters use an antique nautical chart to unlock the secrets held by the sea and by history, Perez-Reverte draws on the metaphorical power of the ocean to chart the essential solitude and longing of the human psyche. This is his most accomplished novel to date. Combining a trademark attention to the historical and technical detail of his subject matter with a perfectly paced narrative, suspenseful twists, memorable characters, and humor, Perez-Reverte crafts an adventure novel in the tradition of the authors admired by his protagonist: Herman Melville, Robert Conrad, and Robert Louis Stevenson. As popular fiction, this book is highly recommended for bookstores and libraries with foreign-language collections. [The English-language translation of this book, The Nautical Chart, is available from Harcourt. Ed.] Wilson Neate, New York Cit.
- Wilson Neate, New York City
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: Spanish

Product Details

• Paperback: 590 pages
• Publisher: Alfaguara; 1st. edition (June 2000)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 8420441708
• ISBN-13: 978-8420441702
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,098,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another wonderful book of Perez Reverte, October 27, 2007

By 

Juan Carlos Uribe (Bogota, Colombia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: La carta esferica (Spanish edition) (Paperback)

As in all its previous works the lead female character will captivate you and her psychological traits are one of the pivots of the novel. As she and his companion a fatalistic out of job sailor try to discover an sunken Spanish Galleon nearby the cost of the Cadiz they will have to sort out a large number of obstacles, criminals and an old nautical chart which bears no identical resemblance to current ones.

I find very odd that many reviewers were put off by the fact that the author uses nautical terms along the novel. But of course he must do it, otherwise how can the reader relate to the struggle and the mystery involved in looking for ancient sunken ships and situations which involve the characters? By the way even if you do not have a clue about nautical terminology (as is my case) the narrative is so good that it enhances your reading experience.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ¡Perez-Reverte me encanta!, December 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: La carta esferica (Spanish edition) (Paperback)

A mi me gusto mucho. "Tanger Soto", el nombre nada mas vale las primeras cien paginas! Mucho tecnicismos, si, pero el mar requiere su propio vocabulario. El libro encierra mucha historia interesante para nosotros los del Caribe. A mi me gusto como trata con temas clasicos (aventura, la tierra y el mal, el mal y el bien, amor y pasion) en un marco contemporaneo. Ademas el libro tiene una estructura interesante que recuerda el vaiven de las olas o un tema de jazz.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars para amantes del mar, November 4, 2010

By 

ramon irizarry (humacao, Puerto Rico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: La carta esferica (Spanish edition) (Paperback)

Como amante del mar con los pies siempre en tierra, disfrute La carta esferica para cuatro estrellas. La que falta se debe al final un poco predecible, un tanto decepcionante. La carga de arpia, de mujer fatal anticipada contra la heroina no le deparaba un destiono distinto. De todos modos, el lenguaje marino por doquier fue de mi gusto, como lector en mi infacia de Julio Verne. Errores: Dizzie Guillespie no era el pianista de Charlie Parker, sino uno de los trompetistas. Otro: veinte y pico de metros bajo el mar no equivalen a docientas atmosferas de presion relativa, sino a dos.