"El italiano" by Arturo Pérez Reverte

In the years 1942 and 1943, during World War II, Italian combat divers sank or damaged fourteen Allied ships in Gibraltar and the Bay of Algeciras. In this novel, inspired by real events, only some characters and situations are imaginary.

Elena Arbués, a twenty-seven-year-old bookseller, finds one of these divers at dawn while walking along the beach, lying unconscious between the sand and the water. As she helps him, the young woman is unaware that this decision will change her life and that love will be only part of a dangerous adventure.