There are many ways to address the 1936 war. One of them, not to mention what happened in it, is that of prewar and postwar. That is where the book of Patxi Zubizarreta is located.

In order to attract the reader from the outset, it is a statement that seems to be a contradiction, that of Alberto Olmos, a writer who says he cannot support novels about war and the holocaust. Reading this first text also tells us Zubizarreta’s intention: this novel is an attempt to break this prejudice and show that there are exceptions to the tendency to boost the cultural industries. It sounds like an ambition, but after reading the novel you understand the reason for the quote and the book, because it is not a novel about war, but a reflection about friendship. On this occasion, the writer has not relied on a love story to relate the qualities of the relationship with war, but pain, betrayal and repentance are very present.

Comparing with the strategies of representation of war in the Basque novel, I would say that in this work we have a different proposal, especially with regard to structure and form. Divided into three parts, each responds to a record, a mold and a shape.

The first chapter is an exchange of letters between Gabriel and Rafael in which the solidity of his relationship is seen, while the war is about to begin, the couple will head from Hitano to Zano, and Gabriel, from Euskera to Castilian, as a precedent of different ideologies.

The second part gets a little heavier, perhaps because the historiographical data contrast with the live oral record of the first chapter. However, there are signs of the relationship between the main characters, and also the secondary characters enrich the environment, such as the escort soldier who wanted to be a teacher or Lucia. However, in this account of the world, which is often depicted as very masculine, there are also no female voices, and I have been sad: Let Lucia's experience, thought and feelings not be translated into context, although the character's decisions reflect the complexity of his situation.

Finally, in the third chapter, the second person narrator focuses on Rafael to tell his last days. So the tension is growing to the end.