War-war and jaw-jaw

Much of The Painter of Battles takes place in a crumbling watchtower on the Spanish coast, its silence broken only by the respectful commentary issuing from the daily tourist boat. Here on the circular wall of the tower a veteran war photographer, Faulques, is painting a gigantic mural on the theme of conflict through the ages: ‘the photo I was never able to take’, he explains. His routines include occasional supply-trips to the local town, morning swims out to sea and back and, less agreeably, ‘a sharp stab in his side over his right hip’ that comes on every eight hours or so and requires dousing with analgesics.

Into this world of diligent sequestration marches the figure of Ivo Markovic, who turns up on Faulques’ doorstep one day, downs some of his cognac and announces that he intends to kill him. Faulques accepts this news phlegmatically. It transpires that Markovic, a former Croatian militiaman, is the subject of an award-winning photograph snapped on the road outside Vukovar.