The Painter of Battles

A man lives alone in a watchtower by the sea. On the circular walls of the tower he is painting a grand mural - the timeless landscape of a battle.He is a former war photographer, and the painting is his attempt to capture the photo he was never able to take; to encapsulate, in aninstant, the meaning of war. But one day a stranger knocks on his door andannounces that he has come to kill him. The man is a shadow from his past,one of the myriad faces of war, and now the consequences of his actionsare brought home to him. As the novel progresses, the story of both thesoldier and the artist emerge, entwined with a doomed love affair, and theprogress of a painting that is infused with the history of art. Intense and turbulent this is a book about art, war, love and the humancapacity for both violence and empathy. It asks very profound questionsabout human nature and the role of the artist, but it is also has theintensity of a psychological thriller as the painter trades stories withthe man who has come to kill him - like the Knight playing chess withDeath in the Seventh Seal....