A story of the great adventure of the Italian combat divers of World War II. Also, a beautiful story of love and war.

And what a war story! Nothing less than the real one (with some artistic license) of the daring attacks on the British naval base in Gibraltar by Italian combat divers with their manned torpedoes during World War II, one of the great adventures of the war, comparable to that of the British commandos in canoe (the famous "heroes in nutshells"), the liberation of Mussolini from the Gran Sasso by Skorzeny and the German paratroopers, the ramming of the HMS Campbeltown in the lock of Saint-Nazaire or the escape by Colditz.

Arturo Pérez-Reverte, creator of Alatriste, Falcó, Coy, and many other adventurous characters, now narrates in ‘El italiano’ (Alfaguara Publishers launched 180,000 copies in Spain yesterday), the war exploits of the legendary Decima Flottiglia Mas ( Motoscafi Armati Siluranti), the "devils of the sea" of the black prince, June Valerio Borghese, their leader.

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